


You chose my magic - Interactive Story

by wertdifferenz



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Fluff, M/M, Magic, Pining, Strangers to Lovers, Witches
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:35:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 27,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23818546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wertdifferenz/pseuds/wertdifferenz
Summary: Lance, a water mage at the prestige Altean University, gets an assignement to study why a certain water plant only grows in volcanoes.Multiple problems arise, the biggest one being that no one ever found the answer to that question, so why should he be the first?He also has no chance to go into a volcano to study the plants unless he finds a fire mage that helps him because the fire and the water mages don't really like each other. Insert an exchange student who has no clue about the quarral and an immediate crush on the water mage begging him for help, and you get this story.***This story was written as an interactive story where my followers on Instagram choose how the story will go. It was lots of fun!
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 43





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> If you are interested in my work, go follow me on [ Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/wertdifferenz.art/) since I post reguarly on there!

Professor Coran swings his hand over the wide wall in the front of the room, making letters appear out of nowhere with grey and orange sparkles. A long text containing the explanation for the final project of his class forms right on top of the white background, and the title has half of the students in the room groan.

Lance is one of them. 

Don’t get him wrong. He loves Professor Coran’s class, and he loves herbs and plant and everything that Coran has to teach him. But with final projects and exams for his other five classes approaching and the fact that you really need to put some effort into your work to get a good grade at Coran’s class, Lance feels like he’s draining out and about to explode at the same time. 

“As you can see,” Coran says after the text on the wall is completed, “I assigned you all a plant that I want you to research. Some are easier to locate, some are more difficult, but I made sure to create a questionnaire for each plant that gives you all roughly the same amount of work.” 

He nods towards the papers on his desk, making them flip to the other side. At the same time, new letters appear on the wall, creating a list of the names of all forty students of Coran’s class and their assigned plant behind them. 

It creates another wave of groans, but this time, Lance is not one of them. 

He’s too shocked to make any sound. 

Coran curls his moustache between his sparkling fingertips which makes a pile of papers fly through the classroom and land on each of the student’s desks respectively. “If you have any questions towards you assignment or the questionnaires, let me know any time, just not right before you project is due.” Coran chuckles. “I can’t help you then anymore.”

The telltale sound of the small bell on Coran’s desk ringing dismisses the class, and the students gather their books and papers and get ready to leave. Only Lance stays behind, walking towards Coran’s desk instead of the wooden door to his right. 

When he arrives, Lance clears his throat to get his attention. “Professor, can I speak with you?”

Coran looks up with a smile. “Of course.” He closes one of the books he had open for the lecture and leans against the table to give Lance his full attention. “Now,” he starts, “I am sure you want to speak about the plant I assigned you.” He waits for Lance’s nod, and nods himself before continuing. “I will not change it.” 

Lance can’t stop a gasp. “Wha-” He takes a few steps forward. “But, Professor!” It’s embarrassing how quickly his voice turns pleading, but he has no choice. “Please! That plant is impossible to research!”

Coran smirks. Just smirks! Leaves Lance hanging with his impossible plant and the impossible question on the paper and the impossible confusion of how Lance is supposed to finish a project that’s just- 

Just impossible!

“I am fully aware of the difficulty of your project,” Coran answers, “that’s why I made sure to adapt your questionnaire.” 

Lance looks at the paper in his hand. Under the mocking letters that spell the plants name is only a single question: 

_ Why does ‘salvia aquatilium’ only grown in volcanoes? _

“You  _ must  _ be joking!” Lance tries, his voice getting more and more desperate. “Many people already tried to find out why it only grows in volcanoes, but not even the smartest heads of this college could find out why!” He throws his free hand into the air, helplessly of what else to do. “You taught us that yourself!”

Coran places a hand on Lance’s shoulder and pats it a couple of times, the motion reminding Lance of his abuelo. “Lance,” Coran says, “you are a great student. You are smart and always full of crazy ideas that somehow turn out great.” With his other hand he starts curling his moustache again, though this time it only makes his hair sparkle. “Remember the project from your first year?”

Lance groans. Of all the stupid things he did in his first year, Coran must remind him of the time he tried to develop a spell that would enhance the potency of healing herbs. Instead, he accidentally created a basic steroid for plants and tested it out on the ivy outside of Coran’s office, making the plant grow so quick it covered half of the building in mere minutes. 

Sure, it got him an A+ on the final grade, but also weeks of detention and the mockery of his fellow classmates for a couple of weeks, until Coran made them quit it. “I wouldn’t say that it turned out great…” Lance sighs. 

Coran shakes a finger in front of Lance, ‘nu-uh’-ing a couple of times. “You managed to create a spell that lets plants grow much quicker without losing any of their treaties.” He turns a bit to look outside the big windows to their left which has a perfect view on Lance’s fuck up. “Plus,” Coran adds, “that ivy makes the building look quite regally, doesn’t it?” 

He laughs quietly, but when he turns back to look at Lance, his smile falls. “Anyway,” he coughs into his fist, gathering himself, “I am sure that if someone can find out more about this mysterious plant, it’s you!” He gives Lance a pointed look, which means that it’s the end of their discussion. 

As if it was a discussion in the first place. Discussions lead somewhere, whereas Lance is just left in the same shitty spot as before. 

He rubs his eyes, runs a hand through his hair and drops is back to his side. “First I need to find a fire mage that will bring me there.” 

Well, not really. First he needs a drink. He doesn’t say that though. 

Coran huffs. “I think that’s your smallest problem.” He swipes his hand over the desk to make his papers and books collect themselves, but his hands stops midway when he realizes what he just said. “I mean,” he stutters, pulling his moustache so far it must hurt, “I am sure that you will find someone quickly. You are good at winning people over” He nods to himself, probably congratulating himself for that horrible save. 

Lance doesn’t really know what to say to that. If Coran thinks that finding a willing fire mage is an easy task, the rest of the project must be really impossible. Why did he give Lance that project in the first place then? He thought that Coran likes him, at least to some extent! 

At least enough to not make him fail his class!

“Well, well,” Coran coughs out, interrupting the beginning of Lance’s mild panic attack and jerking him back into reality. “Don’t sweat too much about it.” He collects his stuff for real this time. A few orange sparkles prickling on Lance’s hands as they land on him as well, so he waves them off. Coran walks up to Lance and pats his shoulder one last time. “Now excuse me, I have to prepare my next class, and I am sure you have somewhere to be as well.”

“Yeah,” Lance murmurs, his thoughts travelling to the advanced spell writing class he is forced to tutor thanks to his mishap with that ivy in first year. “Thanks, Professor.” 

Coran walks past him and through the door, leaving Lance and his whirling thoughts alone in his room. He’s just about to think about excuses to skip Coran’s assignment when the professor sticks his head through the door again. 

“Oh, and Lance?” For whatever reason, Coran gives him a thumbs-up. Just like  _ salvia aquatilium _ , it’s impossible to get behind inner machinations of the professor’s mind. “Don’t forget, your half of your final grade depends on this project, so don’t screw it up!” With that, he leaves. 

Lance closes his eyes and counts to ten, trying to calm down the waves of magic that well up inside him. He’s usually better at keeping his emotions and magic separated, but the past, stressful weeks and the news about his future project makes him feel like a bubble about to burst.

_ Thanks, Professor. _

Lance lets out a deep sigh. How is he supposed to find a fire mage that would help him? They hate water mages because of their incompatible magic. Plus, they are stubborn and hot-headed and their magic is only good for fighting and destroying things, not healing and nourishing it like Lance’s magic. 

And even if he magically finds someone that’s willing to help him out, there is still the problem with the plant. No one ever found out why it grows in volcanoes. How will a common student like Lance be able to solve a mystery that existed for hundreds of years?

This project is set to fail. 

And all Lance can do is ride it out until the end.


	2. Chapter 2

The blue of his uniform stands out between the green of everyone else. Lance feels like a shark in a pod of mermaids. Not unwanted, but definitely not at home either. 

  
Earth mages, just like air mages, usually have no problem with water mages, and the other way around. It’s only fire that water mages can’t get along with, the lack or fire mages in his circle of friends being the biggest sign for it. 

Lance hunches his shoulders and keeps going, his jacket fluttering in the wind because he forgot to close it in his haste. Being surrounded by nothing but strong earth magic makes him queasy, especially since it’s a mix of multiple people, not just the one or two he is used to. 

Being a water mage makes him sensitive towards magic. It’s not as strong as air mages feel it, but it’s enough to make him feel overwhelmed from time to time. That’s why he hurries up the stairs of Hunk’s dorm, so much that he’s out of breath when he finally reaches his door.

He announces his arrival with a quick knock, waits for Hunk to reach out to him, or rather Lance’s magic, to see who’s there. Within seconds the door flies open, and Hunk pulls him into a hug. He must have felt how stirred up Lance’s magic is due to his ruffled emotions. 

“What’s up, buddy?” Hunk asks when Lance is situated on his bed, right across from the table Pidge and Hunk are sitting at. They were doing some kind of project on their own when Lance interrupted them, and he reminds himself that he shouldn’t interrupt their work unless it’s absolutely necessary. They’ve got a ton of shit to do as well, after all. 

Though, right now it is absolutely necessary. 

Lance sighs and leans back on his hands, looking at the ceiling with a frown when he explains the situation. “I need a fire mage to research a plant that no one successfully researched before,“ he says, looking at Hunk for the next part, „or else I won’t pass Professor Coran’s class.”

“Oh damn,“ Pidge murmurs. „You’re fucked.” That earns her a nudge from Hunk‘s elbow. “What?“ she complains while rubbing her side with a pout she would never admit to have. „He is!”

Lance can‘t hide his smile. “It’s okay, Hunk. I know I am.” He takes a deep breath, holds it for a couple of seconds before releasing it while throwing himself back on Hunk‘s bed. “Literally all fire mages hate water mages.” 

„Well, not all fire mages,“ Pidge mutters lowly. Lance raises his head to get watch her, though her attention is on Hunk, sending him some kind of looks that he doesn‘t seem to understand. When Hunk shakes his head for the third time, she rolls her eyes and turns to Lance instead. “There is a new student who just transferred from Marmora.”

“Really?” Lance quickly sits up. He‘s holding his breath, can‘t believe his luck, or fate, or the universe throwing good things at him, so he needs to ask again. “Are you sure? Like, really sure?”

“Yeah,“ Pidge nods, „Matt told m-” 

Lance jumps from the bed, almost losing his jacket since it‘s still open. “I need to find him!” He pulls the white hem over his shoulders and closes the buttons, finally adhering to the uniform standards of the college. He‘s not the best role model today, but right now he couldn‘t care less. When the buttons are closed he runs out of the door, almost hitting his shoulder at the frame when it doesn‘t open quick enough. 

“Lance, wait!” Pidge shouts after him. “You need a plan, you heathen!”

“No time,” Lance shouts back, ignoring Pidge’s curses and hurrying out of the room and down the hallway. He can’t risk the other fire mages teaching the new guy about the feud between water and fire before Lance gets to ask him. 

He hurries outside the earth dorms and over the school grounds, thankful that most people are either still in class or in other places doing whatever. He doesn‘t care, as long as he gets across the campus as quickly as possible. 

If the fire mage is really that new, then he won‘t have a uniform yet. They get measured and tailored by the college, and that takes at least a day or two in the middle of the school year. 

Lance lets his eyes roam over the crowd of red, the mere color making him anxious, and he didn‘t even start looking at the faces of all those students. 

If he feels like a shark in a merpod with the earth mages, now he feels like a tasty knight in the middle of a dragon den. 

And all the mages stare at him. 

The blue of Lance‘s uniform stands out,  _ again _ , and he hates it. Would love to make himself invisible, or simply leave, but he can‘t. He‘s got a mission. He needs to find that fire mage and ask him for help as soon as possible, especially before the other fire mages tell him about their dislike towards water mages at this school. 

The college of Marmora doesn‘t differ between mages, and everyone lives and studies together, water, fire, earth and air alike. But here, at Altea, the gap between water and fire is bigger than the border between the human and the fairy world; uncrossable if you may say so.

And Lance crossed it. Crossed the border, the gap, and the entrance of the fire dorms, and is currently looking to cross out his own life if he doesn‘t find his fire mage in the next five minutes. The red is making Lance crazy. 

And then, finally, he sees something other than red. Black, to be exact, which is hard to spot since the fire mages uniform has some black accents as well. But Lance sees it, and nearly cries out from happiness. He swallows the sound in the last moment and quickly approaches the mage instead, gets in front of him and greets him with a smile. „There you are! I‘ve been looking for you!“ 

The mage is pretty, that‘s for sure. Lance needs a second to gather himself, learn how to speak again and everything, because the big, violet eyes peeking out under charcoal black hair kind of stun him for a second. 

But he‘s got a mission. A project. And a pretty face will not distract him!

Pretty-face‘s cheeks are turning pink the longer he looks at Lance without saying something. Gee, he must not be used to people talking to him, hm? Or maybe he just needs some time to get used to the college and everything. He must have noticed that there are no water mages mingling between all those fire mages, so he‘s probably surprised that Lance his here. 

Right, that must be it.

„Uhm-“ Pretty-face says suddenly, looking Lance up and down for another moment before finally fixing on his face. „You are…?“

„I‘m Lance. A water mage, as you can probably see.“ Lance holds out his hand and pretty-face slowly takes it. He‘s still staring at Lance‘s face, eyes wide and gaping like a fish out of water. Gee, what‘s wrong with this poor boy? Lance tries to keep up the small-talk. „And you?“

The fire mage shakes his head and raises an eyebrow. „What?“

Lance huffs. Really? Is he so distracting? Or what is it? „Your name?“ he asks again, trying to play nice. 

„Ah.“ The eyebrows move to regular position, though a frown appears on his face. „I‘m Keith. Uhm... fire mage-“

Lance chuckles. „I know.“ Gosh the guy is helpless. Perfect for Lance‘s plan that… well, that hasn‘t been formed yet. But he will get there. „That‘s why I‘m here, chulo,“ Lance informs him. „I need your help.“ And he reaches out to catch Keith‘s arms. 

Keith looks down at his hand. Back at Lance, and back down and back up. „My help?“ he asks, cheeks still pink and eyes still blown wide and frown on full force, though it looks kind of cute on him. Like a confused puppy. „Why me?“ 

Lance grins. „Because you don‘t hate me yet.“

„Wait, what?“ 

„Let‘s go talk somewhere quiet.“

Lance drags him along, towards one of the libraries on the school grounds where less red and more green, blue and yellow roam the halls. For now he has seen enough of that color, enough of those stares, but he‘s sure this won‘t be the last time he will be at the fire mage dorms. 

Especially with Keith in tow. 


	3. Chapter 3

It‘s hard to keep Keith‘s attention on him, though Lance can‘t really blame him. 

They are at the main library of the college, which is located in the oldest part of building and is a masterpiece on it‘s own. High walls covered in shelves, pictures carved into the wooden pillars all across the room, paintings of famous people who used to study here on the walls; gosh even the cushions of the chairs are pretty! And Keith takes his time taking it all in. 

And Lance lets him. Now that he‘s taken him far away from the other fire mages, there is no need to hurry. 

“It‘s pretty, isn‘t it?“ he says as Keith stops in front of another painting. It shows one of the founders of the college, and beautiful young woman named Allurelia, the great-great-something-grandmother of one of his friends. 

Keith hums an answer, long and low, the sound vibrating through Lance‘s chest, even though they aren‘t touching. It’s some kind of magic that is usually prone to air mages, though Lance heard of other occasions as well. What were those again?

When they finally find a free table, far away from other people, Lance seats himself in front of Keith, leaning over the table to get straight to the point. “Like I said before, I need your help.” 

Keith leans in as well, placing his arms on the table and nodding a few times. “Sure.” 

Wait, what?

“Sure?“ Lance asks, raising an eyebrow in confusion. How can he just agree like this? “You don’t even know what I’m asking from you.”

Keith shrugs. “I mean, how bad can it be?” He leans back and crosses his arms, regarding Lance with a tilted head and the tiniest of smiles. “It’s not like you’re planning to walk down a volcano, right?”

Lance doesn‘t answer, which makes Keith‘s face fall. 

“Right?“ he repeats with a bit more force, searching for something in Lance‘s face that he can‘t find. He finally stops with a frown. “What the fuck?”

Lance swallows a groan. “It’s for a project,” he tries to explain, but Keith‘s frown remains. 

“You will burn before you even reach the top of the volcano!“ he says. Lance is sure that it‘s loud enough for everyone else to hear. 

He looks around the room, but no one is here to warn them. Yet. Just in case he taps his hands on the table, letting a few drops of magic travel through his fingers to create a bubble around them. 

It‘s not as strong as an air mages one, but sufficient to give them some privacy. Plus, it‘s really pretty. The blue light of Lance‘s magic shimmers like the water of a clear mountain river, reminding him a bit of the river that flows into the ocean right next to his parents‘ home. 

Keith eyes the bubble for a few seconds, looking around him and following a few strings of magic that swirl around to keep up the spell. 

Lance clears his throat to get Keith‘s attention back on him. “That’s why I need your help.” He‘s talking normally, now that no one can listen to them for sure. “You can bring me there with your magic, and help me not burn to crisps.” 

It‘s easy like that. At least the way to the volcano is. 

“I mean, I guess I can…” Keith says, still looking at Lance with a frown. 

“Will you? Please!” Lance leans forward and places his hands together, pleading to Keith with his best puppy-dog eyes and the pout that even his own mother can‘t withstand. “I will fail this project if you don’t help me.” 

“Again, why me?” Keith asks. “You said because I don’t hate you yet.”

Lance sighs, but there is no use. He has to explain. “There is this feud between fire and water mages here at Altea.” At Keith‘s questioning gaze, he just shrugs. “I heard that Marmora doesn’t have stuff like this, but someone years ago decided that we have to hate each other, and everyone just followed.” 

That‘s not all there is to it, but most of the pranks the mages played on each other don‘t really matter. They‘re funny, but not historically important. What is important though… Lance bites his lips. “And it’s my fault that the ivy on the main building also started growing on the fire mages dorm,“ he confesses, “and some people don’t like that.” 

Keith hums again, another wave pushing through Lance‘s chest. “It looks pretty though…” He looks around the bubble again, maybe even through it. “Alright,“ he nods, “I’ll help you.”

That‘s what Lance hoped for, but not really expected. He sits up straight. “Really?” 

Keith shrugs again, his frown replacing with another, small smile. Cute. “Why not? I just have to bring you down a volcano to do…“ He raises an eyebrow. „To do what exactly?”

Lance would love to just forget what his project is about, but he has to explain properly now, doesn‘t he? He takes a deep breath. “I have to study  _ salvia aquatilium  _ and find out why it grows there.” 

“Oh, damn,“ Keith murmurs, reminding him way too much of Pidge somehow. “You are fucked.” 

Way too much. 

Lance ignores it. Tries to remember Professor Coran‘s encouraging words. “I know, but I gotta try at least,“ he grins, “now that I found my fire mage.”

Keith‘s eyes widen, and in the shimmering light of the bubble, it looks like his cheeks even change its color, but it can‘t be. “Your-” he stutters. 

“We should meet up to make a proper plan, guapo,“ Lance adds, clapping his hands together and letting a few sparkles appear. It‘s not enough to pop the bubble, though he‘s not planning on letting Keith go so soon anyway. “We also need to work out how I can thank you properly for helping me.“

“I‘m sure,“ Keith mutters, “I can think of something.“

Lance nods towards him. “That‘s good then.“ He smiles at Keith, knowing that at least one problem is solved. 

There’s only about a thousand left. 


	4. Chapter 4

The fire dorms are… scary.

Sure, Lance has been here a couple of days ago, when he kidnapped Keith to ask him for help, but back then he hadn‘t really looked at the building, but rather for a lack of uniform on his project partner. 

Keith is now fitted with a uniform, the red and black tight against his chest, and even with his jacket there is little room for imagination. Keith is one of the only people who can wear this outfit without looking too gloomy, even though his almost constant frown would tell something different. 

Every since Lance stepped into the fire mages‘ dorms, he‘s gotten stared at by other fire mages. It seems that they haven‘t seen a water mage in here for years. Keith doesn‘t seem to like the attention, even if it‘s not on him directly, and quickly pulls Lance along by his hand, until they are in the safety of his room. 

Lance feels like he can only breathe again when the door is closed behind him and Keith‘s frown loosens it‘s force. He thought it was nice for Keith to come along to his place instead of dragging him to Lance‘s dorms, but next time he‘d prefer doing that instead of facing all those stares again. 

Even Keith seems to deflate when the door is closed. He gets inside the room, which looks like a carbon copy of Lance‘s, only with other sheets on the bed and a few burn marks on the tabletop. He has similar marks in his room, slices of water or frost bites instead of burns, so he knows it must be from the students who lived here previously. 

Keith sits on the bed and gestures for Lance to sit in the chair at his table, so they can start planning. Lance explains to him where they need to go and what he needs to research; or at least what he thinks he‘ll need to research. Let‘s be honest, Lance has no clue if he can find what nobody else found before. 

Probably not.

Lance sighs at the thought, but he pushes it aside to finish up the short summary of the somewhat-plan they have for now. „So, jefe,“ he concludes, holding up a little notebook he used while they talked, „we‘ll meet on Saturday morning, 8 am sharp.“ He waits for Keith‘s nod before continuing. „And we‘ll stay one night at a nearby inn to have more time to study the plant.“ 

Another nod, so he continues with something he hasn‘t broken to Keith yet. „We‘ll have to share a room,“ he says carefully, watching Keith‘s reaction to seeing if he’s rejecting it immediately. „Because I’m a broke college student.“ 

Keith does not reject it. He  _ does _ flat out stare at Lance, his eyes wide and his mouth gaping, but he does not reject… at least that‘s what Lance hopes. 

„Or is that a no-no?“ Lance bites his lip, hoping that he doesn‘t have to come up with another plan. 

Keith quickly shakes his head. „N-no! It‘s fine!“ He wets his lips before biting one as well, looking from his own bed to Lance and back. „Totally fine…“ Keith is probably not used to sharing a room, Lance concludes. Concerned that he can‘t sleep while Lance is in the room. Yeah, that must be it. 

Keith clears his throat and slowly looks up. „Unless you don‘t like dogs.“

„Dogs?“ Lance asks while looking around the room. There is no sign of a dog living with Keith. No toys, no food bowl, no blanket that it could sleep on. Unless… Lance raises an eyebrow. „You have a familiar?“

„Yeah,“ Keith nods, takes the sleeve of his jacket and pushes it back, so Lance can see a pretty summon mark on his forearm. „But he‘s not here right now.“

That piques Lance‘s interest. He‘s not really familiar with… familiars, has only heard of them in class or from other students. Most of his family are farmers, so they prefer real animals over magical ones. „Why?“ he asks, and then, „Can‘t you just summon him?“

„He‘s running an errand for me,“ Keith laughs. His eyes sparkle in a light violet, something Lance supposes is connected to his fire magic. 

„Do you have a picture?“ Lance asks while getting up from the chair to move over to Keith. He‘s not sure if he‘s allowed to sit on his bed, especially when Keith doesn‘t respond to his question and only looks at him funny, but in the end, he just sits down. Keith could kick him off anytime, and his silence is an answer as well. At least Lance takes it as one. 

After a second Keith waves his hand over to his nightstand and back, and a framed picture comes flying towards them. It shows a woman with a mullet who looks way too similar to Keith and a blue puppy at their feet. 

Lance can only gasp. „Oh my gosh, he‘s so cute!“ He takes the picture and another look at the puppy and the cute, maybe ten-year-old boy with the same mullet as his mom next to him. „Is he a good boy?“ Lance asks while looking up at Keith. He can‘t hide his huge grin, nor the small blue sparkles from his own eyes. Puppies just make him happy, and he can‘t help but show it with his magic.

Keith‘s eyes follow the blue sparkles for a second before he looks back at Lance, a big smile on his lips as well. „Yeah, he is.“ It‘s clear in his voice how proud he is of his familiar, and how much he loves him. „I got him a couple of years ago from my mom.“

„That‘s so cool.“ Lance smile doesn‘t fade, even when milion on question pop into his head. He doesn‘t really know anyone who has a familiar like that, so his curiosity is picking immediately. „Is he linked to your fire magic?“

„Only for summoning him,“ Keith explains. „He himself uses air magic to teleport.“

That‘s… wow, that‘s a lot. „Teleport? I never heard of that before!“ Lance leans a bit forward to get a better look at Keith‘s eyes. If he‘s able to use air magic together with his fire magic, it would make sense for his eyes to sparkle in this unusual color. „I‘m getting jealous!“

Keith‘s cheeks get pink, and Lance wonders if it‘s connected to his magic as well. „I‘m sure your magic is awesome as well.“ He looks outside the window where a few, heart-shaped leaves frame the view on the college. „I heard from the others what happened with the ivy.“

„Ugh,“ Lance groans, „don‘t remind me of that!“

Keith tilts his head with a little frown. „But why? It‘s amazing that you managed to make the plant grow faster. No one did that before, and you did it for a simple project!“

Lance swallows another groan. It‘s a sore topic, even with everyone saying that the spell turned out fine. It did, in the end, but it‘s not what Lance wanted to create in the first place. „No one fucked up like that before either.“ 

Keith places his hand on Lance‘s shoulder and squeezes it tight. „You didn‘t fuck up.“ He sounds so sure of it that Lance is almost able to believe him, especially with that determined look and that little, violet sparkle in his eyes. „Sure,“ Keith continues with a huff, „the fire mages weren‘t so happy about the ivy at first, but they are used to it now.“ 

He looks at the leaves outside his window before getting back to Lance. „It makes our building look cool, and it‘s actually a home to many insects that are food for firebirds.“ He gives Lance a smile and another squeeze. „So it‘s a win-win.“ 

Lance nods, slowly and only once, to let Keith know that he understood. He never thought that the fire mages could actually like the ivy outside, never thought that it was actually beneficial to them and their beloved firebirds they feed, just how humans feed… was it pigeons? Or ducks?

Anyway, they forgive Lance, at least to some extent, and that‘s all he needs to know for now. Gosh, he‘s suddenly even happier that Keith is his partner. He can‘t hide his relieved smile and gives Keith a thankful look. 

„Water magic is pretty cool as well,“ Keith adds after mirroring Lance‘s smile. „And you are really good at it.“

Lance laughs quietly while shaking his head. „You haven‘t even seen my magic.“

„I literally see the ivy outside everyday!“ Keith snorts. „And I saw the sound bubble you created in the library.“ 

Right, that happened as well. 

Keith‘s hand wanders from Lance‘s shoulder over his arm onto the sheets, making Lance miss the warmth and reassurance from it immediately. Lance looks at Keith‘s hand for a second before his eyes move back to Keith‘s face, hoping that he didn‘t notice how much Lance liked the touch.

Keith simply continues. „Not many people can adapt magic from other elements like you can.“ He tilts his head and gives Lance‘s shoulder a push with his own. „I‘m sure you worked hard on it.“

„I got a lot of help,“ Lance explains.

„Still, in the end, it comes down to you.“ Keith‘s smile grows, and so does the light of his violet sparkles and his pink cheeks. He looks endearing, almost shy, and it takes Lance‘s breath away. Just like Keith‘s next words. 

„You‘re pretty amazing, Lance.“

Lance can‘t find a reply for that, so he just nods and wonders why his own cheeks heat up as well. Must be the compliment. Or Keith‘s fire magic. Or both...


	5. Chapter 5

Lance doesn’t believe in fate. 

He does believe in magic and in the universe liking to play with people’s lives a lot, but he doesn’t believe in fate. 

Until Keith walks into his history class. 

Lance needs to do a double take when he sees him. Not because he’s so surprised, not because he didn’t expect Keith to be here; no, it’s because of that high ponytail Keith is sporting. 

He didn’t wear that when they met up, and Lance is kind of angry that he’s only getting to see him like this now. He looks great! Amazing even! Freaking ho-

Woa, woa, woa! Where did that thought stray to?

Anyway. Keith looks good with his uniform, and his ponytail, and the constant frown that says ‘Do not talk to me’, and it must be fate for Lance to see him like this. Because who is Lance to acknowledge a frown like that?

He winks Keith over, gets cold stares send his way until Keith recognizes him, and drops the frown to a more… neutral face. It’s still a frown, but his cheeks are pink again from all that magic that must pass through him as he relaxes, so Lance hopes that he’s not angry at him for calling him like that. 

“What are you doing here?” Lance asks when Keith finally arrives at his row. Only three other students are here yet, since classes won’t start for another fifteen minutes, and Lance doesn’t need to be quiet. 

Keith’s voice is a little bit more hushed. “I have classes here.” 

Lance raises an eyebrow. “Now?”

“Yes?” Keith mirrors Lance, raising an eyebrow as well while looking around the room. “Why else would I be here?”

To be honest, Lance could control the grin on his lips, but he doesn’t feel the need to. Sends it Keith’s way with it’s full, teasing force. “To spend time with me?” He adds a wiggle of his eyebrow, watches the pink in Keith’s cheeks get stronger before leaning back. “I’m joking,” he says, just in case Keith plans to kill him with the magic that’s raging through his face already. The magical sparkle in his eyes is missing, but Lance doesn’t want to bet what that means. 

“Oh,” Keith answers simply. It takes Lance off-guard, the short answer, and he leans a bit forward, watching how Keith looks around the empty room again before putting a hand on the back of the chair next to Lance’s. “Can I sit here?”

“Of course,” Lance shrugs. “You can sit anywhere you like, you know?”

“Okay.“ Keith sits right next to him. 

Lance doesn’t mind at all, just like he told Keith. It’ll be fun to have someone he actually knows in this class for once. The other students are just classmates, not somewhat-friends, not project-partners either, and Lance enjoys the closeness for once. 

Especially since history is fucking boring. 

Especially since history is the best subject to sneak little notes to each other. 

Lance starts with that almost at the very beginning of the ninety-minute class. He doesn’t really need to listen to whatever the professor has to say, has taken the class last year out of boredom and just didn’t have any time to apply for the exams for extra credits. 

This year he has time. More than enough time. 

Lance slides a note towards Keith. 

_ Do we share other classes? _

He watches how Keith frowns at the paper than at him, but he pics up a pen and writes on the corner of Lance’s note anyway. 

_ idk _

Well, that’s not very helpful. Keith is most probably able to read Lance’s mind because after a second he slides another paper towards Lance, which shows his curriculum for this semester. 

Lance knows most of the classes but doesn’t attend any of them, much to his dismay. 

_ I don’t have any of the others :( _ He writes, therefore, and,  _ My studies focus on spells and some plants. _

Keith reads the note with a nod and answers,  _ Mine around familiars and fire magic. Obviously. _ He waits out Lance’s chuckle before adding,  _ Why don’t you study water magic? _

Lance catches Keith’s eyes for a second, read the uncertainty over the question in them. He himself doesn’t really care about it, has been asked too many times, especially by his teachers to care for it by now.  _ My siblings taught me when I was in Middle and High School _ , he explains,  _ so I could focus on the stuff I like in college. _

Keith reads the note and pauses for a second, his pen painting dots in the corner of the paper. It looks like those loading symbols on human computers, and Lance has to bite down a chuckle. He doesn’t want the teacher to catch them talking after all. 

After a minute or so, Keith finally writes again.  _ Stuff like plants?  _

_ Stuff like plants _ , Lance underlines with a smile. 

_ Like _ , Keith asks again, _ the salvia aquatilium? _

Ugh. Lance sighs, quietly but long and drawn out so that Keith hears it. He drags the paper onto his side and makes sure to write extra big so Keith gets what he means. _ >:( Don’t remind me of that! _

_ Sorry. _ Keith is so not sorry because he just keeps on writing.  _ Did you prepare everything? _

Lance huffs and stares at him, hoping that Keith’ll get the message. The slightly tilted head tells Lance otherwise though.  _ Didn’t I just say not to remind me? _

Keith grins at him.  _ About the plant, yeah. _ He lets Lance read the first line before adding another.  _ Not about our trip _

_ Ugh!!! _ That guy! Honestly!  _ Yes,  _ Lance stresses the word,  _ I did. _

_ Prepare everything? _ Keith repeats, and when Lance looks at him, he has to do a double-take to actually get that Keith is sporting a teasing smile. How dare he!

_ Yes, cariño,  _ Lance just has to answer, because he’s not the one to lose a teasing contest.

Keith doesn‘t grasp the meaning behind this word.  _ what does that mean? _

_ Idk _ , Lance grins, knowing fully well he won this time. He watches Keith read the lines again, and again until he gives up with a huff and a shake of his head. 

He looks towards the teacher instead, starts taking some notes that are pretty much useless. They are already halfway through the lecture after all. Lance will just have to give him his notes from last year. 

He hopes that will do. At least their little chat did. 


	6. Chapter 6

Saturday finally arrives. 

Lance has been up half of the night, thinking about the project, then the trip, then if he had packed everything and if he should bring more clothes. Or snacks. Or socks. You can’t have enough fresh socks with you!

But even with his running thoughts he fell asleep at some point, only to dream of the trip with Keith, and spending time together, and meeting Keith’s dog that strangely looked like a husky in his dream. He saw a photo of him already, but his mind just wanted to play some tricks on him. 

When his alarm set off at six am, Lance had slept for about three hours. Amazing. He knows that. It took him some time to cover up the black rings under his eyes, even more time to choose a nice outfit for today, even though he had laid something out the night before. 

It just wasn’t good enough anymore. Don’t ask him why. After thirty minutes of trying on clothes, more clothes, and even more clothes, he settled for the original clothes with a sigh. Some comfy black pants, a blue shirt and a blue, weather tight jacket on top should do the trick. 

It’s not super hot outside anymore, and even though they’ll get into the middle of a volcano, Lance figures that Keith’s magic will keep them cool. At least cool enough to survive. 

Lance is almost not late when he finally gets to their meeting point outside of the college’s main entrance. And he almost doesn’t have to run, so he’s almost not panting like crazy when he sees Keith wait for him already. 

He stops next to Keith and leans down to take a couple of breaths. Okay, so he might had to run the whole way. “Sorry, I’m late,” he huffs before Keith can even open his mouth, hoping that the usual frown is not on his face to tell Lance that he fucked up. 

Keith’s chuckle is what gets Lance to carefully look up, and he’s glad that the frown is really not there. Would be weird to see Keith frowning and laughing at the same time after all. 

“Don’t worry about it,” Keith says, looking down to Lance before looking at the dog sitting next to his feet. 

“Is that-” Lance gapes at the size of the dog. Even sitting he reaches Keith’s hip without any problem, and with the black and blue fur he doesn’t look like a dog anymore. More like a big-ass wolf, to be honest. And definitely not like on the picture that Keith showed him. “Wasn’t he…” Lance raises an eyebrow. “...smaller?” 

It’s Kosmo’s cue to get up from his seating position and walk towards Lance with a wiggle of his tail. 

“Woa, okay.” Lance takes a step back, and another, but Kosmo is faster and pushes his head into the hand Lance has raised out to put in between them. Kosmo seems friendly enough, and he’s really, really, really soft. “Oh my gosh,” Lance gapes again, but this time, with a huge smile, “he’s so cute!” 

Keith laughs, mirrors Lance’s smile and steps forward to place a hand on Kosmo’s back. “This is his original size, but I can make him smaller for travel purposes.” 

Kosmo doesn’t even look at him as he speaks, prefers to enjoy the scratches behind his ears that Lance is giving him at the moment. Gosh, he’s really so cute! Just like- 

“Shall we go?” Keith asks after a second, looking on his phone and then at Lance. 

It’s already too late to catch the train they planned on taking, but Lance nods anyway. “Sorry, again. We’ll miss the first train-”

Keith shakes his head with one of his small smiles. “Don’t worry,” he says again. “We won’t.” 

Lance frowns. “What?”

There is no way they’ll make it, even if they ran. Lance is about to speak up when Keith steps forward and takes his hand while placing his other on Kosmo’s head. There’s suddenly that tangy feeling of air magic around them, rupturing through Lance’s body like a strong north wind, and he closes his eyes in reflex when he sees a few, blue sparkles. 

Just as blue as Kosmo’s fur, just as magical as the dog itself. He hears a ‘zap’ in his mind, feels a pull in his belly, tightens his grip on Keith’s hand to not get lost, and when he opens his eyes again, they are not in front of the college anymore but-

“What the hell?” Lance asked with wide eyes and mouth even wider. They are at the train station, right in front of their train, where they definitely haven’t been just a second ago. 

He looks down at Keith’s hand that’s squeezing his own, then to Kosmo and up to his owner. “Did he just-” he breathes out, stopping when he sees Keith’s smile grow wider. “And did we just-” He looks at Kosmo again, who’s tilting his head at him, probably confused over Lance’s shock.

Okay. Okay this just happened. This really just happened, and Keith could have been so kind to warn him beforehand, because- “Holy shit, your dog can teleport.” 

Another nod from Keith, and Lance is practically jumping in the air. “That’s so freaking cool!” He gets on his knees and start petting Kosmo again, asking over and over again who the good, no, the best boy is. He gets a wag of his tail and a tongue in his face as an answer, but Lance hardly cares. “How far can he go?” he asks Keith with a big smile, one that gets mirrored yet again. 

“With us two, not that far. About a mile, two if I help him with my magic.” With a swish of his hand, Kosmo’s suddenly growing smaller and smaller, until he’s the size of a little puppy. “He’s probably not allowed in the train,” Keith explains when Lance is about to squeal from excitement, which would definitely get too much attention drawn on him. 

But he’s just so cute! And such a good boy, letting himself get picked up by Keith and shoved into his big backpack without any complaint! The best boy, hands down!

“Lance,” Keith interrupts his internal freak out, “I think we should get inside.” He points towards the train and shoulders his backpack with Kosmo inside. Cute little Kosmo.

“Oh, right!” Lance gets up, pats his hands off on his pants and straightens the straps of his backpack. “Let’s go then,” he nods with a smile. 

The train ride takes about two hours, with multiple stops in between. Lance guesses he’s lucky that they have a volcano that grows  _ salvia aquatilium  _ so close to the college, and not half across the planet. Saves him travel costs and the need to convince Keith to go even further for him. 

When they make it to the hotel it’s almost lunch time, and Lance is starving. Since he was so nervous he almost forgot to eat some breakfast and only managed to munch on a cereal bar between talking to Keith and trying to hide Kosmo from all the other passengers. 

The receptionist is giving them a weird look, but Lance pays it no mind. He’s probably not used to two young guys staying in this hotel instead of… well, old guys. Or families. Or couples, you know, people who want to enjoy some volcanic hot springs and a nice view on the volcano providing them. 

Only when they get to their room it starts to make sense.

Lance stops right in the doorframe, gaping, because his fears came true. “There is only one bed.” Ugh, he should have checked with the hotel beforehand that they get separate beds, but he guesses it’s too late now. 

Keith huffs from behind him and pushes Lance a bit to the side to see for himself. “Indeed, there is.” He looks between Lance and the bed, than back and Lance before declaring, “I’ll take the floor.”

Lance turns to him with a frown. “No, you won’t.” 

“It’s no big de-”

“Keith!” Lance interrupts him, taking a second to drag him fully into the room and close the door behind them. “I won’t make you sleep on the floor when I asked you to come here in the first place! I’ll sleep on the floor, you take the bed.”

“No, you-” 

“Lindo,” Lance places his hands on his hips, “I won’t accept a ‘no’.”

Keith crosses his arms over his chest, ignores the whine from the inside of his backpack and regards Lance with a frown that has already lost its force to Lance. “I don’t really care if you accept it, but you won’t sleep on the floor. No discussion!”

“Yes discussion!”

The room is quiet besides Keith’s sharp intake of breath and a ‘zap’ when Kosmo finally has enough and teleports himself from the bag to the top of the bed. He turns a couple of time before laying flat down and watching them with his big, cute eyes. 

Lance has to swallow cooing at the puppy. How can a dog be that cute. 

“What if-” Keith starts after a while, biting his lip and looking at Lance from under his bangs. “What if we share a bed?”

Lance eyes grow wide and he steps forward with a smile. “You’re okay with that?” He honestly doesn’t want to sleep on the floor either, and if Keith is the one suggesting...

“Sure,” Keith croaks out, his cheeks pink again and his magic making the air between them sizzle with energy. He takes a deep breath and nods, more to himself than to Lance. “Sure, sure, sure. Why shouldn’t I be?”

“Alright,” Lance grins, walking towards the bed and throwing himself right next to Kosmo, “that’s good then.” 

This trips is already starting out great.


	7. Chapter 7

Lunch was a quick affair by simply buying something at the next shop they found. It was a little stand that sold homemade sandwiches and some pastries, so they took a sandwich each and something sweet to eat at the top of the volcano. If they ever reach that, because…

Lance whines for the third time in two minutes, probably pissing Keith off, but right now he doesn’t care. The stitches in his side vibrating pain all over his stomach area are making leaving him with nothing to care about anymore. “I ate too much,” Lance says after another, drawn out whine, and looking up at way that’s still ahead of them, he adds, “Ugh, and now we have to walk too much.”

Keith chuckles, but with him facing forward and Lance’s strong believe that he must be pissed off already, it could also be an unamused laugh. “Kosmo can help us a bit,” he says in between steps, not even breaking a sweat while Lance suffers behind him. “But some of the walking you have to do yourself.”

“I know, I know.” Lance waves his hand, even if Keith can’t see it. Kosmo can, since he’s already far ahead of them, with his endless energy and curious attitude. He’s not breaking a sweat either, or a pant like dogs would, and Lance is endless jealous. Just how sustained are the two of them? Are they going on crazy hikes like this all the time?

The way up to the volcano is long, takes at least four hours, but with Kosmo probably something around two. That’s still a lot, but Lance can’t really complain here. “It’s my project, so I have to work for it,” he mutters, more to himself but to Keith. He looks uphill. “Or rather walk for it…”

He can hear Keith’s chuckle for real this time, and it makes him smile as well. At least someone is having a good time. Kosmo barking from a fallen tree that he’s standing on makes Lance add him to the list of people-who-are-having-fun too. 

He’s not on that list, by the way. 

They walk silent for a while, Kosmo in the front, running up and down as if he has a never ending source of energy, just like the volcano, and Keith in front of Lance, so he can set the pace. Lance is pretty sure they would took too many breaks if he’s in the front. Like this he can just walk and think about other, more pleasant stuff. Lying at the beach, for example, or going for a swim, or trying not to stare at Keith’s fine ass while he’s walking in front of him. 

Why does he have to wear so perfectly fitting jeans to a hike? To torture Lance? To get a reaction out of him? To make him fall for that fine butt and even finer face?

Just kidding…

After a while, walking in silence gets too boring, and even if Lance can hardly breathe by now, he asks Keith something that’s been bugging him for a while now. “You said you got Kosmo from your mom, right?”

Keith looks back while walking, regarding Lance with a look he can’t quite grasps. “Yeah,” he nods with a little frown. 

Lance ignores the frown and goes straight to the topic. “You think she could get me a familiar, too? A cool one like Kosmo!”

“Sadly, no,” Keith answers while looking back forward so he doesn’t trip. “You have to find one on your own.” After Lance’s disappointed huff, he adds, “They have to choose you, and then link their magic to yours so you can summon them.” 

That actually makes sense. It wouldn’t be nice if familiars were imprisoned creatures. Just like the person they choose, they should be able to live freely, and not be bound to someone they don’t want to be bound with. Lance doesn’t know much about familiars, but that’s something even he knows is important. 

“So,” he huffs after a second, “Kosmo choose you?”

“My mom found him on the streets about ten years ago,” Keith answers, still not breathing as heavy as Lance does, “so she brought him home to find a good place for him, but Kosmo preferred to stay with me.” 

Lance can hear the smile in his voice without having to look at him. His face at least. 

“That’s so cute.” He has to smile as well, even though his face must look like a grimace thanks to his unfamiliarity with hikes like this and the tiredness it ensures. “That reminds me,” he adds,” of the cow I helped raising as a child. We grew quite close, I even had to sleep in her barn for one summer because she would miss me so much.” Lance shrugs. “But I guess she can’t become my familiar.”

“Depends,” Keith huffs. “Is she magical?”

Lance snorts, tries to hide it with another loud breath and grins instead. Keith doesn’t need to hear those embarrassing noises. “Magically cute, yeah. She’s just a normal cow though.”

Keith hums, long and low, the sound vibrating through Lance’s chest yet again. It’s familiar, the feeling, and it tells him that Keith is about to say something that he’ll like. 

How he knows that? Don’t ask him. 

“I think,” Keith starts after a second, “something like a cat would suit you well.” He looks over his shoulder, his eyebrows furrowed as if he’d been really thinking about it, not just to say it but to make Lance happy as well.

And it makes him happy. 

Why? Don’t ask him. 

“Because they are cute?” Lance asks instead. 

“Because they are smart,” Keith corrects him with an eyeroll, though Lance knows that he doesn’t mean it. 

That’s why his grin just has to turn teasing. “And cute?”

Keith sighs. “And cute.” 

Another long break where they just walk, with Kosmo far ahead of them and Lance’s eyes focussed on the ground so he doesn’t have to look elsewhere. 

“Foxes are smart as well,” Keith says, jerking Lance out of his focus and back to- “and quite loyal if you treat them well.” 

“Well.” Lance laughs nervously, searching for words while his brain rebutt- reboots! “No matter what or who,” he proclaims, “if someone wants to be with me, I’ll already be happy, no matter who it is.”

Keith stops, waits for Lance to catch up and regards him with one of his frowns.“No matter who?”

“Yeah.” Lance nods, taking in Keith’s face. The frown is lacking the usual rebuff. It looks rather… considering? 

Well, again: don’t ask him. Lance doesn’t seem to know much today. 

Must be all the fresh air from the volcano and the forest they are still wandering through. Gosh, they have such a long way ahead. 

They continue up that stupid volcano for what feels like eternity, but when Lance looks at his watch it says that they’ve only been walking for an hour. Keith notices the same, and calls for Kosmo to bring them a bit further ahead. 

Hand in hand they get teleported out of the forest and up towards the north. Keith must have helped with his magic, since they are much closer to the top of the volcano than Lance expected them to be.

Around them is nothing but large stones and small pebbles, the landscape drastically changed from the beautiful and serene view they had before. Kosmo doesn’t seem to like the change too much, since he’s just sitting in between Keith and Lance and panting heavier than before. 

“We should take a break,” Keith says with a look down, and only then Lance realizes that Kosmo must be tired. 

He nods, hoping that his laziness didn’t lead to Kosmo and Keith exhausting themselves just for his stupid project. Lance follows Keith towards one of the larger stones when one of the pebbles suddenly move under his foot, making him lose balance. 

Before his knees can hit the hard ground, Keith is pulling him up by their connected hands. With a huff Lance crashes into Keith’s chest, but the other doesn’t even move, just catches him with an arm around his waist like it’s no big deal at all. Like he didn’t just save a 150 pound guy without any problem. 

Maybe Lance shouldn’t find that as hot as he does, but he doesn’t know for sure. For now he lets it happen. 

When he can finally get his body in an upright position far, far away from Keith’s sculptured chest, he hopes that the heat in his cheeks is from the hike, and not from whatever just happened here. 

It is definitely from the hiking. Just like his rapidly beating heart. 

Keith’s not saying anything either. He runs his hand through his hair and turns towards Kosmo while sitting on one of the bigger rocks, giving Lance a good view on the tips of his ears, which are just as red as Lance’s face feels. 

Must be from the hiking.

Yep. The hiking. 

“Your mom,” Lance starts when the silence between them gets too uncomfortable, “she must be really nice if she let you keep Kosmo when you were only…” He stops to count the years on his hands. “Eight?” he guesses. “Nine?”

Keith clears his throat and turns. “Ten.” He nods. “And yeah, she’s usually nice.”

Usually. 

_ Right _ .

Lance raises an eyebrow. “That sounds like there’s a big ‘but’ behind that sentence.”

“There is no ‘but’. My mom is nice.” Keith purses his lips, as if he’s not really believing himself. “She’s just…” He stops himself, tries to speak, stops again, takes a deep breath. Lance regrets asking in the first place, wants to tell Keith that he doesn’t have to explain himself when- “She’s just never there, especially since my dad…”

He stops again, but Lance’s curiosity is piqued. He sits next to Keith on the rock and leans a bit forward to catch Keith’s absent gaze. “Your dad?” He regrets the question the second he watches Keith’s face fall, knows he shouldn’t have asked this last question when the look in Keith’s eyes turns sad - way too sad to be healthy. Lance bites his lip. “Sorry, it’s not my place to ask.”

“No,” Keith looks at him and shakes his head with a gentle smile. “Don’t worry about it.” 

He stares at Lance for a good second, waiting for something, another question or apology maybe, but Lance can’t speak.

“Lance,” Keith huffs when Lance keeps on biting his lips. “I said don’t worry.”

“I can’t just turn it off.” He pouts, really trying to not worry about it this time. It’s not working, obviously, and Keith sees it, obviously. 

“Talk to Kosmo or something.” Keith smiles towards his familiar who is still lying on the ground, watching the landscape with his big eyes, ready to run around again. “And stop thinking about it.”

And what would keep Lance’s mind better off things than a nice little tease. It’s good that Lance knows at least one thing about familiars: the intermediate world only they can access. 

“He’s like a Pikachu,” Lance notices, nudging Keith’s shoulder while looking at Kosmo. 

The confused frown comes back. “What?”

Lance snorts at his own joke before he can even tell it. “He doesn’t-” A laugh interrupts him. “He doesn’t like to be in his pokéball.”

Keith groans, but there is that hint of a smile again, so he can’t hate the joke  _ that _ much. “Did you just-” he sighs again, feigning some disappointment, “Did you just compare my magical familiar with a video game?”

Lance holds up a scolding finger. “With a video game  _ character _ . A famous one on top of that.” He watches how Keith bites down another sigh and adds, “One that doesn’t like to stay in his pokéball.” 

“The place I can summon him from is not like a pokéball, Lance.” He sounds scolding as well, but the smile he can’t keep off his lips anymore tells Lance that Keith is enjoying him just as much. “And he can stay wherever he wants, in this world or the one for familiars.”

“Kosmo,” Lance calls out, waiting for the dog to come to him with a wagging tail before squishing his cheeks between his hands and talking to him with a baby voice, “do you wanna be a Pikachu?”

“He doesn’t,” Keith mutters, swatting Lance’s hands away and giving Kosmo a good scratch behind his ear instead.

Lance pouts at him before scratching Kosmo’s neck. “You don’t know that.” 

“I do.” Keith looks at Lance for a second, raising his eyebrow challenging before his head jerks back to Kosmo when the dog moves and their hands accidentally touch. He sits back, hand resting on his legs instead and clears his throat before speaking. “I can feel what he’s feeling.” 

Interesting. Lance would love to know how it’s like to feel another beings feelings, especially Kosmo’s right now. The dog is back to running up and down the field of stones with an energy that’s hard to match. Wouldn’t it be amazing to be able to share those happy emotions? 

More importantly though: “And he feels unhappy with being a Pikachu?”

Keith frowns at Lance’s unbelieving tone. “He can also feel what I am feeling, and I feel very unhappy with it,” he says with a finalization that Lance just has to challenge. 

“That doesn’t count.”

“It does.” 

“It doesn’t.”

Keith sighs a third time, and Lance’s mind screams ‘bingo’ in his head. Keith gets up, waits for Kosmo to come back to his side and gives him a firm pat on his back. “Let’s just keep walking,” he says, half-turning to Lance. “It’s still a long way.”

Lance joins his side with a nod towards Kosmo. “Don’t you think our Pikachu needs a bit more rest?”

“Lance!”

He’s pretty sure that even the people back at the hotel can hear the loud cackle he lets out, but he doesn’t care. Keith smiles at him while shaking his head, either utterly done with him or utterly amused. 

Who knows?

Kosmo probably does, if what Keith said is true. Lance would love to be able to confirm that right now, love to know what Keith is feeling right now; though he can’t, so he just keeps walking behind Keith again, getting back on track up the volcano. 


	8. Chapter 8

Lance is utterly exhausted when they finally reach the top of the volcano. Even with Kosmo’s help the walk is tiring, and his whole body, from his toes to his brain, feel dizzy when they take their last break before going down again.

A little too late Lance realizes that the dizziness might be from the lack of oxygen, so he quickly creates a bubble of air around them to make sure they are safe. Hypoxia is not a fun thing after all, especially when you are trying to research plants for your final grade.

With Keith literally pulling him up and along, they finally get to the edge of the mountain, where a low drop awaits them. A low drop and the perfect view of a field of glowing, blue flowers, growing in the middle of ash and lava. 

Lance and Keith can do nothing but stand and stare.

“Wow,” Lance breathes out, his mind blank of any other word than this. 

It takes a while for Keith to speak up, but when he does he sends a confused look towards Lance to get his attention. “The flowers,” he nods towards them, “are blue?”

Yes. Blue and glowing. Sparkling as well, if you look closer, but only when a soft breeze weaves through the leaves. 

“Because of the water magic…” Lance shrugs, “probably.”

They start walking into the field, careful to not step on any plants. They are growing so close to each other that it’s hard to see the ground. Lance just hopes that there is no lava they can step in, or at least that Keith’s magic will protect them from it. 

There is a little clearance in the middle where they stop to look around them. Kosmo has been following them idly, but now he’s walking around himself, sniffing at the flowers and the ground, as if he was searching for something. 

Keith looks from his dog to Lance, tilting his head slightly. “What do we do now?”

Good question. 

Lance shrugs helplessly. “Pick a few up and get back to the hotel, I guess.” That was at least the plan, since Lance didn’t know what to expect beforehand. When he crouches down to touch one of the plants, he quickly realizes that this plan is already doomed to fail. “Ah, shit,” he curses.

Keith crouches down as well, sudden panic in his voice. “What it is?” 

Lance sighs. “I think the plants are getting their energy out of the ground.”

Keith gives him yet another a confused look, his eyes darting between Lance and the flowers until he asks, “Isn’t that normal for plants?”

“No, I mean-” Lance chuckles lowly. Keith’s cute pout is taking his mind off his own cluelessness for now. He can’t hide his smile, even when he looks down towards the plants again. “I don’t exactly know what I mean either. The salvia aquatilium are water plants, they shouldn’t grow here in the first place, and now it looks like they need fire magic to survive.”

Keith raises an eyebrow. “You mean-”

“The energy of the volcano.” Lance looks around them, taking in the different feelings of magic pulsating through his body. “We’re in the middle of all four elements. Fire from the lava, earth from the mountain,” Lance says while placing a hand on the ground. 

“Air because air is always there, and water,” his other hand runs over the small petals of the blue flowers, “thanks to the plants here.” He looks at Keith and waits for his nod before continuing. “Even though I never heard of it before, the plants use fire magic to survive.”

Keith hums understandingly, though Lance knows he must be just as confused as himself. Especially when he looks at Lance, eyebrows still raised, pout still on his lips, eyes just as helpless as Lance feels. “Can plants even do that?”

“Yes?” Lance shakes his head. “No? I mean, we can do it. Like…” He scrambles for an example. “Like I am using air magic right now to keep some oxygen around us, but I am not living off the air magic.” Since mages only live off the elemental magic they are born with. Water lives off water, fire lives off fire, and so on. Lance sighs. “I mean-”

“I get it,” Keith interrupts, while running a hand over the smallest leaves on the plant. “We need it to survive right now, but not to live in general.”

“Yeah.”

“Could it be,” Keith ponders, “that the plant is made from two types of magic?”

That is something Lance never heard of either. And he’s pretty sure that no one did, since all his books and professors taught him that everyone is born with one kind of magic, not two. But with this plant, Lance starts to believe that everything is possible. 

“Maybe…” he concludes, even though there is nothing to conclude. With a sigh he drops on the floor, burying his head in his hands and trying to fight of an approaching headache. “Ugh, I don’t know. I thought we could find an answer here, but instead we just got more questions.”

Keith crosses his arms over his chest. “And we can’t take one home...” His head shoots up when he notices what he just said, and his looks turns apologetic as soon as he sees Lance’s pout. “Hey, it’s okay, we have time.” He sits down as well and places a hand on Lance‘s arm. “Let’s take a break, yeah?”

Lance drops his bag on the floor and rolls his shoulders. Keith does the same before taking a water bottle from his own bag and offering it to Lance. They sit in silence for a while, Lance’s eyes roaming the field of sage and the walls of the volcano until they fall on Kosmo, who’s growling at a plant a couple of feet away from them. “What is he doing?”

Keith follows his gaze and shrugs his shoulders. “Protecting us, I guess?” He calls out for Kosmo and frowns when he gets ignored. “He’s unhappy with something he sees there.”

Lance snorts. “With the plants?” To be honest, it wouldn’t surprise him. Maybe Lance’s dissatisfaction about the project is somehow getting transferred to Keith, and therefore to Kosmo as well. Lance takes a deep breath before getting up and walking towards Kosmo. 

“Hey boy,” he says while petting Kosmo’s head and trying to look what’s at the end of his snout, “what do you have there?” He crouches down, ignores Kosmo getting in his face and trying to push him away. Especially when he sees what has gotten him so defensive. 

With a gasp he turns around. “Keith! Look!” 

Before Keith can even get to him, Lance picks up the tiny, blue snake Kosmo is still growling at and holds it to his chest protectively. The snake is looking at him with it’s big, sapphire blue eyes. It’s tongue darts out a few times, and it seems to be quite happy to be out of Kosmo’s reach for now. “It’s so cute!”

“It’s a snake,” Keith deadpans when he steps next to Lance, taking it in with his usual distance towards new things. Lance just huffs at him. 

As the snake wraps around his hand, Lance holds it up to get a better look at it. The light blue scales on her back reflect the sunlight, the silver ones on her stomach seem to sparkle when they touch Lance’s hand. He feels his magic react to the snake, reaching out to her just like her magic is reaching out to him. 

“A cute one!” he concludes with a smile, even when Keith doesn’t reciprocate it. 

He crosses his arms over his chest and carefully steps closer to take a look at the snake. “It’s magical,” he murmurs towards Lance, as if the snake couldn’t hear him, and furrows his forehead.

“That’s why she’s probably here,” Lance answers. With the water magic coming off her, he‘s pretty sure that she‘s not where she is supposed to be. Probably only able to survive in between all that lava thanks to the sage and it‘s magical properties. 

That‘s not what Keith is concentrating on right now. Instead he tilts his head towards Lance. “She?” 

“Yeah,” Lance nods, “she.”

“How do you know that?” 

“I-” Lance halts, the question, or rather the answer taking him completely off-guard. He mirrors Keith‘s frown in confusion. “I just do? I don’t know.”

Keith furrows his forehead even more, his eyes jerking from Lance to Kosmo when his familiar nudges his nose against Keith‘s hands. Then, suddenly, it seems to darn to him, because his eyes widen and he takes a sharp breath. “Oh no.”

Lance raises an eyebrow at him. “What?” 


	9. Chapter 9

Time passes quickly when you are distracted by a cute boy, a cute snake, some flowers, and Keith. 

There is hardly any sunlight shining inside the volcano, even though the walls of stone around them are not as high as Lance had expected. In this region the air is filled with magic that reflects the sunlight when it blows strongly and keeps it from hitting the ground like it should. 

Elemental magic is weird, and tricky, and clearly not in their favor this afternoon. Lance is still waiting for Keith‘s answer when they notice the sun dim down immensely. Even though the water magic of the flowers and the fire magic of the volcano are lighting up the area around them, they can‘t exactly camp out here and they need to be able to see something while getting off the mountain again. 

„I think we need to go soon,“ Lance sighs, sending a longing look towards the plants he can‘t take with him. That doesn‘t really help his project at all, because he needs time to study them, time to research more, time to think of fucking something that will not make him fail his project. 

With another sigh he turns to Keith, who is still looking at the snake in his hands with a frown. Lance‘s eyebrow twitches in annoyance and he presses the snake to his chest, feeling her wrap her body around his neck and staying there like a loose necklace. Or a scarf. She‘s certainly warmer than expected.

„What is it that you won‘t tell me?“ Lance asks again, watching how Keith sends his frown towards Lance while the crease in his forehead deepens.

„It‘s…“ Keith starts and stops himself, looking towards Kosmo instead who is nudging his snout against Keith‘s hand. He eyes the snake again and sighs, his face loosing up when he looks back at Lance. „It‘s a magical snake.“

Oh, really now?

Lance scoffs. „Yeah, I know that. I could feel her magic even before I picked her up.“

Keith head shoots up and his eyes widen „You can feel that already?“ 

„Already?“ Lance tilts his head, Keith‘s surprise taking him off-guard. „Is that so weird?

Keith bites his lips, looks at Kosmo for guidance, but the dog stares at the snake with a tilted head himself. „That,“ Keith explains carefully, „usually only happens after you-“ He interrupts himself again. 

Lance rolls his eyes. What is so weird about Lance feelings a snakes magic without touching her that Keith is hesitating so much about? Or is it really  _ that _ weird? Did Lance do something bad again? 

He‘s suddenly getting nervous, even if the warm presence of the snake around his neck is trying to calm him. 

How does he even know that?

„Come on, Keith,“ Lance pushes, stepping closer to touch Keith‘s arms and shake him gently. „Spill it.“

Keith looks at Lance, the his magic pushing back into his cheeks, turning them pink. His eyes don‘t sparkle, but with the touch Lance can feel Keith‘s strong magic pulsing through him. 

Hence, his cheeks turning pink. 

Even though a gentle whisper on his shoulder is telling him that‘s this is not the reason…

Keith clears his throat. Eyes Lance and the snake. Takes a deep breath and finally spills it. „After you accept her as your familiar.“

Oh.

_ Oh? _

„M- my-“ Lance stutters, starting to eye the snake as well. „My what?“ 

A mixture of feelings are swirling through his chest. Confusion, delight, nervousness, happiness, shock, surprise. Through this whirlwind of emotions, he can clearly make out that half of them do not belong to him! They belong to-

„Your familiar,“ Keith repeats, a bit louder, a bit surer of himself. „It is-  _ She _ is magical and clearly wants to stay with you.“ He nods towards the snake, the frown coming back in full force. „She‘s already talking to you and-“

„Talking to me?“ Lance takes the snake from his neck and holds her in his hands again, watching her every, smooth motion skeptical. „But,“ he wonders, „I can‘t hear her?“

Keith groans and runs a hand through his hair. „She literally told you that she‘s a girl. I‘m sure,“ he points out, „she‘s about to tell you her name as well.“

„Are you?“ Lance places her back on his hands and hold her up in the air, trying to open his mind to her words. It sounds like she’s speaking through a wall, but he can make out her soft, hissing voice, running through his scalp like a cool mountain stream. „Blue, huh?” Lance smiles at her. „That‘s fitting.“

„Blue?“ Keith snorts, shaking his head disbelieving. „Anyway, it‘s super unusual that something like this just-“ He raises his hands and lets them drop back against his side after a second of thinking. „…just happens. Familiar bonds take a while to develop, and it takes month or even years to understand them like you just did in seconds!“

Lance raises an eyebrow at the incredulous tone in Keith’s voice. He sounds properly done with the whole topic and too passionate about it at the same time. It makes him chuckle, makes him try to find an answer as well, but he knows way too little about familiars to think of something that would make sense. 

„Maybe,“ Lance ponders, „I‘m just easy to bond with?“ He smiles at Keith. „You and I bonded quickly. Kosmo and I did as well, right Kosmo?“ 

Lance leans down to pet the dog with his free hand, surprised when Blue wants to touch him as well. He‘s quite sure that Kosmo wouldn‘t want that though, at least for now. The dog still a bit weary of Blue on his hand. 

The sky turning a deep red is what makes Lance remember the time. „We really should go now,” he says while placing Blue back around his neck, hoping that she will like the spot for now until he can find a better one. His backpack maybe? Or on top of his head?

„Back to the hotel?“ Keith interrupts his thoughts. With a smile he adds, „I suppose you don‘t like camping.“

„I don‘t mind it, but… Keith, the hotel has hot springs.“ They can’t just let that opportunity slip. Especially because the hot springs are, „Another place filled with magic from all four elements. It‘s so cool.“ 

Lance can feel a bubble of excitement inflate in his stomach, and in Blue’s as well. She seems to be happy to get out of this volcano soon.

„It‘s hot water,” Keith deadpans, although he doesn’t sounds too reluctant.

„Come on,” Lance grins, “it‘s cool.“ He turns towards the path they came from, looking over his shoulder to make sure Keith is coming as well. „Let‘s go.“

Keith shakes his head again, this time with a smile though. „Kosmo can bring us.“

„All the way?“ Lance waits for Keith to get back to his side, Kosmo squeezing in between them to make sure they are both touching him for the teleportation.

„I‘ll help out,“ Keith ensures, though Lance feels like he’s been helping out too much already. 

„Let me help as well!“ He runs his hand through the thick fur on Kosmo’s neck and calls for some air magic to offer to the dog. It feels just like talking to Blue, through a thick wall but still somewhat understandable, and soon he can feel Kosmo’s magic pull his mind closer.

Keith sighs. „I don‘t think that will-“

Kosmo’s fur lights up in that beautiful blue Lance likes so much. He can hear the ‘zap’ in his mind, feel the pull in his belly and in his magic, a good amount of it disappearing, just like the flowers and the volcano around them. 

„…work,” Keith finishes, his eyes widening when he realizes that they are back in front of their hotel. He blinks towards the entry, blinks again towards Kosmo, blinks a third time at Lance before he gasps.

„Holy shit!” He pulls his hand from Kosmo’s head and runs it through his own hair instead. „Holy shit! How did that work?” He points at Lance. „You‘re not supposed to-“ He stops and points at Kosmo instead, dropping on his knees to be on eyelevel with the dog. „ _ You _ are not supposed to-”

Lance shrugs and silences him with a grin, happy that it worked. „It’s because we bonded!“

Again, he knows too little about familiars to be sure of that, and looking at Keith’s face he gets that it’s probably not the reason, but the hot springs are just a bit more important right now than the secret behind Keith’s and his compatibility with Kosmo. 

Lance turns on his heel, heading straight for the entrance of the hotel, leaving a stunned Keith behind. Kosmo follows him idly, already getting smaller to hide from the staff in one of their backpacks, just like Blue is hiding under Lance’s collar. 

They know how important the hot springs are right now!


	10. Chapter 10

It takes a lot of convincing, but after half an hour of pouting and another half an hour of getting dinner, since they are starving, Keith finally agrees to go to the hot springs with him. 

It’s already pretty late and the rest of the hotel is quiet. Most people are here for the hot springs in the first place, so they probably already had their share for today and enjoy their evening with their family or their partners. 

Well, Lance is enjoying his time with Keith!

Clothes are usually not allowed in the hot springs, but since no one is watching, Lance is wearing the swimming trunk he brought, and Keith is wearing one Lance stole for him from the reception. It’s not really stealing if no one needs them, right? 

Anyway. The water is pleasant, lifting the ache from their worn muscles and making their heavy bodies feel weightless. There is the faint smell of pine trees and rosemary in the thick mist right above the water surface, and it helps their minds relax as well. At least it helps Lance, since Keith is still pondering over something.

When Lance nudges his side and sends him a questioning look, Keith sighs and starts talking. “I can’t stop thinking about the teleportation.”

“About Kosmo using my magic?” Lance asks, just to clarify.

Keith nods. “Yeah.” He leans a bit forward, resting his elbows on his knees under the water and sinking lower, so his shoulders are covered as well. “It should not be possible between people who are not…” He stops. Sinks even lower, his mouth under water and making little bubbles for a brief second before he gets back up. “Bonded,” Keith finishes with red cheeks. 

Probably from the hot springs. 

“Oh?” Lance blushes as well, but for an entirely different reason. Bonded is what his parents are, or his brother and his wife, or his grandparents, but him and Keith? Lance forces up a grin, trying to appear nonchalant. “I mean-”

Keith stops him with a frown. “The time we spend together was not enough to bond, Lance.” He shrugs, hisses when the cold air hits his shoulders, and then quickly drops them back into the cold water. “Not even my mom can work with Kosmo, and she has known him for years, and me even longer. And on top of that,” Keith adds with another sigh, “you have that super strong bond with a familiar you just met.”

That’s not something that worries Lance, since his bond with Blue feels natural. Sure, it’s as if they had known each other for years, when it’s been merely a few hours, but… if it just feels right, why would he fight it? “I guess it’s unusual,” Lance says nevertheless, hoping to appease Keith with this answer. 

“It is.” Keith lets his hand wander through the water, playing with the soft current that is going through the hot spring, probably from the volcano. “But then again,” he says absent-minded, “so are you.” 

This time it’s Lance who frowns. What is that supposed to mean?

“I don’t mean it in a bad way!” Keith scrambles to say when he sees Lance’s face. “It’s just-” He stops himself, bites his lips, takes a moment to breathe before he continues with a proper explanation. “At my old college, and even in Altea I never met anyone who can keep up with spells from different elements like you can. Even professors that use water magic can’t do it.” 

Lance doesn’t really expect Keith to be lying, but what he’s saying is just… it just can’t be right. Him, better than a professor? Yeah, no. Lance, an average student, studying his ass off to get good grades, and even that would not be possible if it wasn’t for the tutoring he got from his siblings as a child. 

He’s really not that special, especially not unique. Maybe good at screwing up sometimes, if the ivy on the fire mage dorms is any indication, but for the rest...

That look in Keith’s eyes though, it makes him wonder if there  _ is _ more to it. So honest, so sincere, as if he really means what he says.

“I never really thought about it like that,” Lance admits after a while. His mind didn’t change, but he doesn’t really want to fight Keith on it right now. “I just learned the spells and kept practicing until they work how I want them to.” He shrugs, and scrambles for a topic change. “Your old college…”

Keith leans back, resting his head against the edge of the hot spring behind him and looking at Lance through his lashes. “What about it?”

A questions Lance has been dying to ask since he met Keith now pops into his head. “Why did you come to Altea?” 

Keith smiles, more to himself than to Lance, before he starts talking. “My brother wanted me to transfer, since he’s here.” He pauses and looks at Lance with a huff. “Well, Shiro’s not really my brother, but we’re close like that.” 

He doesn’t explain further, but somehow he doesn’t need to. Lance understands how people can grow that close, like his best friend Hunk, who’s almost like a brother to him as well, or like his sister-in-law that knows Lance better than he does himself. 

“By the way,” Keith adds with a grin, “Kosmo can’t use his magic either, even though he’s an air mage.” He gives Lance a pointed look, something Lance pointedly tries to ignore. 

“I feel like there is more to that story,” he says lowly, grinning at Keith when he sees a small pout that tells Lance that he’s right.

“Marmora is a good college, but Altea has better courses for fire magic,” Keith mutters, though Lance won’t let him go so easily. A long stare, a little nudge, another grin, and Keith finally cracks. “I got into too many fights.” 

“Ah,” Lance chuckles, “there it is.” He leans his head against the edge of the hot spring as well and looks through all the steam at the sky and the stars above them. “Did you at least win the fights?” 

“Of course,” Keith huffs. Though, after a long moment, he admits, “Most of them.”

The silence that settles between them is comfortable, and for once Lance doesn’t feel like he needs to fill it with chatter. Even if his talks with Keith are always nice as well, the silence is just as good. It’s as if they are able to read each other, like they’d known each other for years. 

Maybe that’s why Kosmo can use Lance’s magic? Maybe that’s why their bond is already so strong - at least that's what Lance feels like it is...

A breeze above their heads sweeps most of the steam away, and even if the water is fired by volcanic energy, Lance still starts to shiver. “It’s getting cold,” he whines quietly, looking at Keith to ask to go back to the room when the water suddenly heats up again, gaining a temperature that’s almost too comfortable to ever leave. Lance raises an eyebrow at Keith. “Did you just-”

He gets a grin in return. “I did.” Keith is sweeping his hand through the water, his eyes sparkling faintly while the tips of his fingers create warm currents. “But only the spot around us.” He sighs. “I’m too lazy to heat up the whole place.” 

Lance chuckles, a tiny bit amazed at Keith’s magic. Even the water three feet around them is sparkling a little bit, so Lance knows exactly where Keith placed his magic. But… “Won’t the hot water mix with the cold water?”

Keith closes one eye and smirks. “Not if you can prevent it.” 

Oh? Lance laughs quietly. That’s totally something he can prevent. 

He reaches out and concentrates on the tip of his fingers, just like Keith did before. Instead of warming the water though, he takes control over the currents to keep the hot water like a bubble around them. Or like a warm, wet blanket. And because Lance can’t resist....

Keith eyes the small fountains and steam-filled bubbles that appear with the blue sparkles of Lance’s magic and shakes his head with a smile, adding a few dancing flames between the bubbles which makes the steam swirl around as well. 

And, you know, if the whole place would happen to look like a magic show after they are done playing around, Lance wouldn’t mind at all.


	11. Chapter 11

They left the window ajar. With four living beings in one small room, it‘s obvious that they need that open window to get enough air to last through the night.

Thanks to that, Lance can hear the splatter of the hot spring outside, as well as some night birds taking off every now and then. It‘s quiet. Calming. Everything Lance would need to fall asleep. 

But can‘t. 

His mind is a mess. It‘s been a while since he couldn‘t make his brain shut up- since exam week in the previous semester to be exact- and even though he knows a couple of spells that would make him sleepy enough, he can‘t be bothered to cast them. 

He feels like he will miss out on something if he does. 

On what? Don‘t ask him. With the world being asleep, he has no clue what important thing could happen that‘s worth staying up for. 

But still- 

Keith sighs next to him. He turns around, shuffles under the shared blanket, huff quietly when the cold air hits him, takes a deep breath and-

„Why are you awake?“

Lance turns his head to meet Keith‘s gaze. The low light of the moon illuminating his face enough for Lance to make out a frown. Lance shuffles on his side to face Keith better, places his arm under his head to get more comfortable. 

„I can‘t sleep,“ he explains quietly, hoping to not wake up Blue and Kosmo who are resting arm in arm- or rather paw in tail- on the floor. 

Lance can almost hear how Keith rolls his eyes at him.

„Oh? I didn‘t notice.“ His voice is way to high, almost mocking, and Lance has to chuckle. Keith joins in, nudges his side when Lance won‘t shut up, over and over until he grows silent. „There is something on your mind.“

Killing the bird straight away. 

Lance takes a deep breath, holds it for a couple of seconds and lets it go again. It‘s not enough to calm his thoughts, not enough to calm his body, but his heart takes the little break to start a new rhythm. „It‘s just-“ he murmurs, stopping himself when a wave of doubt hits him.

It‘s stupid to even think about it. He is stupid for even thinking about it, losing sleep about it, keeping Keith awake because of it. He shouldn‘t worry so much, should just focus on his studies and try to find an answer to his problems. He shouldn’t depend on other people all the time. Especially since he‘s already depending on Keith so much. 

Would it hurt though, to depend on him a little more? 

„I‘m-“ Lance murmurs, chewing his lip until it starts to hurt, „I’m scared of the project.“

„Scared?“ Keith repeats with a frown. Lance is pretty sure that he would tilt his head if the pillow wasn‘t in the way, the image almost too cute too imagine. Definitely too distracting for their serious topic. 

Keith huffs quietly. „I mean, I would get worried, or a bit anxious, but straight up scared?“

„Scared to fail,“ Lance clarifies, making Keith‘s mouth open with a little ‚oh‘. 

Keith answer comes quick, just like Lance expected it would. „You won‘t fail.“ His voice is so sure of it, without a single doubt, without any understanding what Lance even means. 

It‘s frustrating.

„That‘s easy to say.“ Everyone say that, everyone claims that he won‘t fail, that this task will be easy for him, that he will find a solution somehow. 

But how? 

Why does no one tell him how he is supposed to find an answer to a question no one ever answered before? Why does no one dares to tell him that there is a fucking chance that he will fail, a fucking big way that he will not manage to find that answer, a fucking huge possibility that he‘s not what everyone tries to make him be?

Lance turns back on his bed, ignores the sting in his eyes and the sharp breath he holds to keep his emotions in. It‘s useless to think about it. Useless to talk about it. 

He should have just shut up. 

Keith should just shut up and sleep as well. Instead, he reaches out, his hand not leaving the warm cocoon of their blanket while he searches for Lance‘s hand under it. He finds it after brushing over Lance’s waist and arms, and squeezes it tight. 

„Lance?“ he whispers, his voice full of worry. 

It makes Lance‘s heart sting like his eyes, shameful of making Keith feel this way. He turns back on his side and concentrates on the white light on Keith‘s cheeks so he doesn‘t have to see Keith‘s frown. „I’m sorry.“ 

„Don‘t be sorry,“ Keith answers quickly, „you are right.“ He squeezes Lance‘s hand again, much softer this time, urging Lance to look at him properly. „I don‘t know enough about you to say something like this for sure. It‘s been barely a week after all.“ 

Keith chuckles at the memory, his smile growing wide now. „But in one week you showed me stuff I never thought people would be able to do, let alone one single person.“ Another squeeze, another smile, another feeling washing through Lance‘s body. „I truly think you will manage.“ 

And somehow, Lance believes him. Though, he‘s quite sure it‘s not Keith‘s words, or his soft grasp on his hand under the sheets- 

It‘s him. His own feelings radiating strong enough to reach Lance‘s heart, to reach his soul even, and calm him like a cold breeze whispering with the crown of an old oak tree, like a little stream running down a mountain on a hot summer day, like the smell of a bonfire and the view on the star filled night sky, like- 

Like-

Just like Keith.

„And if not,“ Keith laughs suddenly, „you can run away and live in the woods.“

Lance makes a face. The thought alone- living in the woods, with all those bugs and spiders- ugh. „I don‘t want to live there,“ he whines lowly, gaining another eye roll from Keith. 

„The mountains then,“ Keith offers next. 

Lance has a better idea though. „The ocean.“ 

It‘s Keith who makes a face now. „Too much sand.“

It‘s Lance who rolls his eyes next. „You‘ll get used to it,“ he declares, smiling at Keith‘s cute little pout. His lips look so soft in the moonlight, so inviting and kissab-

Wait, what?

A shift on the mattress draws Lance‘s thoughts away, especially since that shift is not coming from Keith‘s side, but from the end of the bed. A second later a heavy body lifts itself on the bed and rounds itself a couple of times to get more comfortable before plopping down. 

Lance grins at Keith, who‘s just rolling his eyes at his familiar. 

„Does he realize that we‘re awake?“ Lance whispers. 

„Of course he does,“ Keith answers as Kosmo takes on the spot between their legs. He‘s way too big to fit the bed in the first place, especially with the two of them already laying in here, but- „He doesn‘t care though.“

Kosmo ignores his unwanted presence in this tiny bed by placing his head into Lance‘s lap and licking his own nose while staring at Lance with his best puppy dog eyes. 

Blue, perched on Kosmo‘s head and staring at him with her best puppy snake eyes doesn‘t help either. 

„And now they are demanding pets,“ Lance chuckles, giving in right away. Those two are just too cute. With a grin he turns towards Keith. „You trained him well.“

He‘s watching the scene with a frown, probably envious that Kosmo is demanding pets from Lance and not from him. „Shut up,“ he huffs, taking the edge of his blanket and pulling it over his shoulders as he lays back down. „Sleep now.“ 

Lance gives Kosmo and Blue a final pat before laying down himself. „Good night, Hot Shot.“

Keith perks up. „Hot Shot?“ His whisper sounds incredulous, and he sends another huff into Lance‘s direction before flopping back into his pillow. „Whatever. Good night, Lance.“

Surprisingly- or maybe not- Lance falls asleep right away. 


	12. Chapter 12

The bed is too warm, too crowded, too-

Too nice. 

They sleep in and miss breakfast, though Lance doesn’t really mind. A quick trip to the nearest bakery fixes that, while a strong coffee to go fixes a bunch of other things. For example Lance’s heated face. 

Why it’s heated, you ask? Since Kosmo and Blue took almost all space in the bed, Keith and Lance ended up sleeping arm in arm. Lance discretely peeled himself from Keith’s hold before the other woke up, but his heart hasn’t been able to calm down since. 

Just like the heat in his cheeks. At least with the coffee he has a good excuse for that. 

As soon as they finish their food, they set out. They combine their magic and get Kosmo to teleport almost all the way up, only stopping to cast that bubble of air and Keith’s fire shield around them before continuing. 

It’s truly nice to have a teleporting wolf at times like these.

Time efficient as well.

In record time they make it to the plants, leaving Kosmo and Blue, who’s still parched on Kosmo’s head like a little crown, to play around. 

The flowers of the plant are dancing in a soft breeze, blue sparkles lifting into the air and mixing together with some reds of the volcanos magic. It’s a sight to see- those colors, those types of magic coexisting together, sharing space and energy to live in that little paradise they created together. 

And Lance still has no clue how all of this work. 

The plants themselves need water magic to live, thrive and reproduce. There is clearly no water magic around here- even the water of the hot springs is mostly filled with fire magic, and even the rain shouldn’t be able to provide them with the amount of water and magic they need. 

It’s pretty much hopeless.

“So,” Keith murmurs after a while, “what’s the plan?”

Lance sighs. “Honestly? I don’t have one.” His fingers gently touch one of the leaves, running over the soft edge and light fibres, the strong stem and up to the glowing flowers. “I think all I need to understand is how the plants are able to live in this place, but-” 

Another sigh, another wave of anxiety. “I have just so many questions that I can’t form a proper thesis.” His mind is like the wind, and those questions are the force that turns it into a hurricane. “How are they able to get enough water magic to survive? Why is the heat of the volcano not burning them? How did they get here in the first place?”

When Lance looks at Keith, he seems to be just as clueless as Lance is. A bark makes him look at Kosmo, and his eyes widen with an idea. “Maybe your snake can tell you that?” He looks back at Lance with some hope. “Wasn’t she here for a while? I bet she knows something.”

Lance giggles, Keith’s idea making a picture of a detective pop into his head. “Are you trying to interrogate my familiar?” 

Keith furrows his eyebrows, suddenly very hesitant about the answer. “Uhm… no?” 

“Oh my gosh, Keith!” Lance lands on his butt from chuckling like crazy, getting the attention of their familiars on him. Kosmo and Blue get to their side, the wolf sticking his snout into Lance’s face while Blue takes the opportunity to wrap around Lance’s neck. 

  
Lance holds out his hand for Blue to climb on there instead and holds her on eye level as he speaks to her. “Did you see something interesting while you were stuck here?” he asks softly, using his free hand to run a finger over her soft scales. “How did you get here in the first place, hm?”

Blue is reaching out immediately, placings bits and pieces of words and pictures into his mind, telling him her whole story- well, at least her story about her time in the volcano. Lance feels like she has so many more secrets that she’s yearning to share with him. 

Keith sits on the floor as well and shuffles a bit closer. “What is she saying?”

“An owl caught her,” Lance starts to retell, “and as they were passing over the volcano Blue managed to escape and dropped between the plants.”

“Okay.” Keith does with his answer, staring at the flowers as if he needed some time to digest this story. With a frown he looks back at Lance. “And why didn’t she burn?” His eyes widen when he realizes what he just said. “I mean-”

“I get what you mean,” Lance interrupts with a reassuring smile. He knows that Keith doesn’t mean it in a bad way. It’s a valid question after all, one Blue is answering him immediately. “She hid between the plants. Since they store so much water magic, she was able to survive here.” 

Keith’s frown doesn’t disappear. Instead it turns even worse, as if he’s seriously wrecking his brain about something. “Yeah, but…” He tilts his head and bites his lip. “Why didn’t she  _ burn _ ? We need my shield to stay alive in this heat. How did she get something like this?”

Lance doesn’t quite know where Keith is going with that. He sends a questioning gaze at Blue, but his snake prefers to stay silent and watch him with her big, wise eyes. Lance feels a wave of her confidence, he push into the direction of Keith, a silent confirmation that  _ yes, this is exactly what you are looking for, here lies your answer _ , and he-

Lance gasps as it hits him. “She didn’t. Just like the plants don’t!” He turns towards a very confused Keith, taking his hand and squeezing it tight over and over again. Lance finally found the first lead on the massive labyrinth of questions that has formed in his head. 

Keith, though, is probably even more confused than before.  _ “What?” _


	13. Chapter 13

Keith watches him with a frown. “What do you mean, ‘she didn‘t’?”

Lance lets Blue back on Kosmo‘s head, feels her and Kosmo‘s magic reaching out to each other to make sure she doesn‘t fall off. Scales and hair doesn‘t hold well after all. “I mean,” Lance explains after they trott away again, “that she didn‘t burn because the plants protected her.” 

“So,” Keith murmurs, “the plants are protecting themselves from the volcano?”

Lance bites his lip. “Not exactly.” There‘s much more behind his theory, but he figures that it might be easier to show Keith instead of trying to explain it. Lance reaches for his bag and beckons Keith closer. “Come here.” 

Keith scoots over to him, waits until Lance fishes all he needs from his bag before speaking up. “You brought flowerpots?”

“Yeah,” Lance answers. “How else am I supposed to take some plants with me?” He takes the little shovel he brought as well and puts some of the volcano‘s earth into one of the pots. He can feel a little bit of earth magic, as well as the fire magic of the volcano run through his hands as he pats the earth down and makes a little hole in it. 

Next is the plant. He carefully digs one out, mindful of the roots, and places it into the little hole he just made in the pot. He can feel the plant reaching out, trying to refuel it‘s water magic from Lance, which proofs another theory he thought off.

Keith watches him patiently, until Lance is done. “I thought you can‘t take them with you because they need fire magic to survi-” He stops himself, huffs quietly and shakes his head. “Right, I‘m the fire magic.” 

Lance chuckles softly, but doesn‘t let that distract him from his work. He gives the plant some of his own magic, making sure the plant soaks up everything little drop before taking Keith‘s hands and places them around the pot. 

“Okay,” Keith coughs out, “what do you need me to do?”

Lance places his hands in his lap and looks at Keith with a smile. “Cast a fire shield around them.”

“A shield?” Keith clearly has no idea where Lance is going with this- well, neither does Lance. He just hopes that his and Keith‘s magic will work together, even though…

Keith casts the spell, slowly creating a shield around the plant. He‘s careful to not get too close to the leaves, mindful of not hurting the plant with his fire, even though the water should work against it.

Should-

But it doesn‘t. 

Instead of keeping the fire magic away, the water seems to draw it in, reaching out to it just like it did with Lance. The blue particles start to swirl around the red ones from Keith‘s spell, dancing around each other and getting closer and closer until it‘s hard to make out which is which. The magic turns violet for a brief second before the water and fire suddenly repel each other, water going back into the plant, fire back into the shield where it was supposed to stay from the beginning. 

“Okay...” Keith murmurs when he‘s finished, dropping his hands and looking up at Lance. “Now they are protected from the heat. Just like-”

Lance grins at him. “Just like they were before,” he finishes, watching Keith‘s face light up with realization. 

“You think they already have a fire shield?”

Lance nods, letting his eyes wander over the field of plants around them. “I think the volcano protects them.”

Keith furrows his forehead. “Why should it to that?”

“Nature working together.” Lance shrugs. He doesn‘t really know either. 

Keith shakes his head. “Water and fire can‘t work together, just like air and earth can‘t. They are opposites.”

“I mean,” Lance raises an eyebrow, “we work together.” He watches how Keith turns sceptical. “We also managed to work together in the hot springs yesterday,” Lance offers. “You heated the water, I kept it around us.” 

Keith sighs defeated. “Okay, you got a point. But,” he chews his lip, “why would the volcano protect them?”

Excellent question. Lance has no clue. 

“Because-” he murmurs, wrecking his brain for an answer. “Because...” 

Nature usually works together. Earth, water, fire and air in the right amount creates life. Creates more magic. Balance each other out. 

Protect each other.

The volcano is protecting the plants, creating a shield against its heat, maybe even against other influences, like strong winds, natural enemies, everything that could bother the plant. All it needs, in the end, are some sun, some soil and some water, which are already two of three things the volcano can provide. The water would have to come from the rain. Even little showers should be enough feed the plants if the volcano protects them from the rest, and the water won‘t touch the magic of the volcano, since the plants-

Keith places a hand on his shoulder and squeezes him gently. “Lance, it‘s okay. You don‘t ha-” 

_ Of course! _

Lance takes Keith‘s hand and leans towards him, squeezing it even tighter. “Because the plants are protecting the volcano as well!” Keith flinches slightly, leans back with red cheeks, but doesn‘t let go of Lance‘s hand- not that Lance minds in his euphoria. 

He would love to facepalm himself for not seeing the obvious sooner, but ignores it to explain his thoughts to Keith instead. Or rather-

He takes Keith‘s hand and pushes it against the earth between them. “When you touch the ground,” Lance asks him quietly, “what to do you feel?” 

“Dirt,” Keith deadpans, sighing when Lance doesn‘t let him off so easily. He looks at the ground, pouts, and finally gives it a proper thought. “Earth, dust, heat-” Another sigh. “Basically fire and earth magic.” 

“And,” Lance asks with a smile, “what do the plants need?”

“Water ma-” Keith stops, looks at Lance and his eyes widen. “Water magic! But there is none.” A little smile appears on his lips as he leans forward. “You think-”

“That all the magic is in the plants.” Lance takes their hands and guides it over the shield, soft sparkles running over their fingertips. “They protect the volcano from water, and the volcano protects them from fire.” A winning grin spreads over his lips. “They work together.”

“See.” Keith nudges his shoulder. His smile grows a “You found your answer.”

“Well,” Lance sighs, worrying his lip as he thinks of all the other questions his brain just came up with. “It‘s more like the first theory for the whole thesis.”

“But still more than anyone else ever found.” 

Another nudge against his shoulder, teasing this time, making Lance draw his focus back to the here and now. Back to the answers he found, to the discoveries he made- back to Keith sitting next to him, his smile proud, his gaze soft, his hand back in Lance’s, squeezing his fingers encouragingly. 

“I knew you could do it.”

“Yeah,” Lance answers quietly, enjoying the little success for what it’s worth. “Thank you, Keith.”


	14. Chapter 14

It’s almost dinner time when a bright flash draws Lance’s attention from his notes about the plants to his bed. Kosmo’s standing there, looking at him, then at Blue who’s sitting on one of Lance’s pillows before touching Blue with his snout and disappearing just as fast as he came.

“What the-” 

Lance jumps from his seat and gets to his bed. The whole pillow is gone, his favorite one on top of it, and his familiar of course. 

But it’s not like he can do something about it. Kosmo is super friendly with Blue after all, and Lance is pretty sure that he would feel when Blue is in trouble. At least she would reach out to him, and he would reach out to Keith, and Keith would reach out to Kosmo to get his wolf under control. 

So, Lance doesn’t really worry. He just gets back to his notes, finishing off the sentence he just worked on before taking a leaf from one of the plants and picking it to get a better look at it. 

A knock on the door interrupts him. With a sigh, Lance drops the leaf onto his table and gets up. Seems like no one lets him concentrate this evening. Lance opens the door with a pout-

“Hey,” Keith greets right away, holding Lance’s pillow and his familiar in his hands with a small smile on his lips. “I thought I’d bring her back.”

Cute. 

“Thank you,” Lance huffs, taking both and placing it on the little dresser next to his door. He can’t hide his own smile, especially when Kosmo pops up behind Keith, forces himself into the room and promptly kidnaps Blue again. “What-” Lance can’t believe it. He turns towards Keith. “What has gotten into them?” 

Keith shrugs. “I don’t know?” He bites his lips, looks into the hallway where Kosmo pops up for a split second. “Maybe they just like spending time together.” Just as quickly as Kosmo vanishes, Keith changes the topic. “How is it going with the plants?”

Lance is pretty sure that Keith knows exactly what’s up, especially with the way he’s barely able to look him in the eyes while unsuccessfully biting away a smile. He doesn’t question it too much though, Kosmo probably just told Keith what Blue forget to tell Lance. 

Like, how great friends she and Kosmo apparently are.

Or, like, where the fuck they are going. 

Lance walks into his room and signals for Keith to follow. “We got back like three hours ago,” he reminds Keith, and since then he hadn’t done much but unpack and scribble down the thesis he thought of in the volcano. 

Keith closes the door behind him. “Right.” He steps next to Lance, looking at the five plants Lance placed on his desk before his eyes move to Lance’s notes. “Do you-” he murmurs- “do you need help? Like, magic for the shields or something?”

“Not really,” Lance answers. He watches Keith’s shoulders fall and hurriedly adds, “You’ve done so much already, and the shields are pretty strong, so I don’t think that you need to feed them more magic.” 

Keith’s shoulders stay low. “Just-” He bites his lip again, looks at Lance as if he were troubled. “Just tell me if you need help, yeah?” He bumps into Lance’s shoulder and adds with a smile, “I’m already invested. I really want to know what you find out.” 

That’s actually really nice to hear. Lance mirrors Keith’s smile. “I think I’ll stop for today,” he steps back to stretch a little bit, “and get some dinner.” 

“Oh, alright.” Keith takes a step back as well, his hands vanishing in the pockets of his jacket. “I, uhm-” He stares at the floor for a second, clearing his throat. “I heard there is a good pizza place near here.” 

Lance can feel his smile widen. “You mean Balmera? Yeah, they are great.”

‘Great’ is the understatement of this decade. Hunk works there on weekends after all, and his cooking is just out of this world. 

“Do you want to go there?” Keith runs a hand through his hair and scratches his neck. “I don’t know my way around, after all, and I thought it would be nice to end the weekend like that, since, you know, we spent two days together and-”

“Are you rambling?” 

_ Cute _ .

“No.” Keith snaps his mouth shut and pouts at him. “I’m not rambling-”

“You totally are,” Lance chuckles. Keith gets flustered, which sends another wave of cute cute cute cute through Lance’s brain. He ignores it to grab his jacket from his chair and slip into a pair of shoes before shooing Keith out of his room. “Alright, let’s go. I’m starving.” 

Lance doesn’t know who he’s got to thank for another dinner with Keith, but he sure is glad

to get a little bit more time with him before school he has to dive into his project for real. 


	15. Chapter 15

The pizza place is busy. It’s a Sunday night, and they have the best pizza in town, so it’s actually no surprise. It’s also no surprise that they find a table in the corner of the place, since Lance knows the owner, the best chef, and half of the staff working here.

They always make some space for him. 

And Keith. 

He looks a bit surprised at the mass of people in this shop, or even that they get a table right away, but as soon as they arrive at their booth he seems to loosen up immensely. Especially when Lance starts pointing out the best and worst pizzas of this place. 

Seriously, no one can make a banana-shrimp pizza taste good, not even all the magic in the world. 

Not even Hunk.

As they enjoy their pizza and do some small talk in between bites, mostly about Kosmo’s behavior and the ongoing mystery about the plants, Lance realizes that this is almost like a date- you know, if they haven’t already spend a night sharing a bed together in the middle of a romantic hideout.

Anything gets shadowed by that.

His thought gets interrupted by a chair scraping over the floor and stopping right next to their table. With a huff, Pidge takes a seat and immediately starts trying to get some of Lance’s pizza. 

Lance swats her tiny hands away. “What are you doing here?”

Pidge tries and succeeds to get a piece of Keith’s pizza next, since Keith is too stunned, or maybe even too shy to react. He does scowl though.

“Hunk texted me,” Pidge explains, putting the piece she just got right back on Keith’s plate. She’s not a fan of olives, and Keith ordered a pizza with an unhealthy amount of those. She starts glancing at Lance’s plate again. 

Lance puts a water shield around his pizza and raises an eyebrow. “So?”

“We,” she points between Lance, herself and the kitchen, where Hunk is probably at, “haven’t seen you all weekend.”

“Yeah,” Lance huffs, “I was on a volcano.”

Pidge nods towards Keith. “With that guy?”

“That guy,” Lance nods towards him, noticing just how lost he looks, “is Keith.” It’s cute how he’s trying to follow the conversation with a mix of a frown and a lost puppy look on his face. Poor him, but he ought to meet Pidge sooner or later. 

“Hey,” Pidge nods again, “I’m Pidge. I’m a-”

“Fairy,” Lance interrupts, getting the first punch of many from her. 

Keith’s head picks up. “Really?”

“No,” Pidge rolls her eyes, “do I look like the fucking Winx Club?” She doesn’t get an answer, which is a very smart move from Keith’s side. “I’m an earth mage.”

“She’s totally Tecna,” Lance stage whispers, losing the shield around his pizza when he has to put it on himself to save himself from Pidge’s assault of punches. Another chair scraping over the floor announces another arrival.

“Hey guys,” Hunk grins at him, nods at Keith, takes Pidge’s fist to keep her from hitting Lance. “How’s the pizza?”

Lance can’t hide a proud smile. “Great, like always.” He waits for Keith to nod in agreement before briefly introducing the two of them. They shake hands awkwardly and look at Lance to speak up again. “He’s saving my ass for the project.”

Hunk smiles at Keith. “That’s so nice of you.”

“Isn’t it,” Pidge chimes in. Her mouth is full of pizza, but she still manages to look intimidating. “And why would you do that?”

Keith’s eyes widen. “Uhm-”

“Pidge,” Lance warns quickly. He can’t lose his fire mage just because his friends are overprotective of him.

Pidge looks from Keith, who’s getting redder by the minute, to Lance and shrugs. “I’m just saying-”

A blue light to her right makes her almost fall from her seat. Kosmo appears with Blue on his head, putting his snout on the table to let her down, and maybe to get some pizza as well. 

“Dude,” Hunk half-coos, half-frown, pointing to a sign next to the entrance, “no hairy familiars.” This is a restaurant after all.

Keith pats Kosmo’s head and sends a wave of magic to him to help him teleport away again. “Sorry.” For a brief second, violet and blue sparks surround them until they disappear just like Kosmo does. 

Only Blue is left, snaking over the table and onto Lance’s hand until she arrives at his neck, hanging herself around him like a chain.

Pidge eyes her wary. “What’s up with that snake?”

“Ah,” Lance grins and runs his thumb over the smoothe scales of Blue’s body. “That’s my familiar.”

She huffs. “I’m not even surprised.” She gets another piece of pizza, stuffs it into her mouth and proceeds to talk, like a heathen. “Only you go into a volcano to study an impossible plant and bring a familiar back.”

“And some plants,” Lance adds quietly, looking at Keith.

Hunk hums loudly. “Congrats on that.” He gets up and takes Pidge’s arm before she can steal another piece of pizza. “We will now let you two alone again.”

“But, Hunk,” Pidge protests loudly, “I’m not-”

“ _ Alone _ , Pidge.” Hunks low voice makes her shut up. He’ll probably feel bad about it in a minute and stuff her face with as much pizza as she can eat to apologize, but for now Pidge listens. 

Hunk drags her away, and the two leftover chairs soon get taken by some other students. It’s just the two of them again- oh, and Blue. Hunk makes sure that no one, especially Pidge, interrupts them at their almost-date. 

He even sends them some dessert after they finish their pizza, like the angel he is. 

“You have the best friends,” Keith comments as he eats his lava cake with gusto. “Mine can barely cook.”

Lance sigh with relief, thanking whoever is listening that Keith didn’t immediately recoil at Pidge’s curiosity, or the general scepticism she puts into everything and anything that comes close to Lance. 

“The best,” Lance grins. “And you are one of them.”

Keith grins as well, licking the last bit of chocolate from his spoon. “I mean, that’s fair, since I am saving your ass and all that.” 

Lance kicks him under the table, earning a full laugh this time. He can’t help but join in, his own lava cake almost forgotten until Keith starts to steal some of it. 

He can’t imagine a better way to end the weekend. If they could just always do this. 


	16. Chapter 16

Monday mornings mean getting up early, running late to Iverson’s class because you just have to get that coffee at that super popular and extremely busy coffee shop- oh, and of course going to Professors Coran‘s class right after, which is only halfway across the campus.

Lance would kill for a teleporting wolf familiar on Mondays. 

He barely makes it on time and sits in one of the empty seats at the back of the classroom. This seat and the mere picture of his teacher that reminds Lance of the impossible-not-so-impossible-anymore project that‘s currently perched on the windowsill of his dorm room makes it difficult for Lance to keep up with the lecture.

In the end he packs his bag with his notebook that has little to none notes from today’s lecture and with a million more questions in his head, all regarding the  _ salvia aquatilium _ .

Thanks, Professor.

Before Lance can leave the classroom to get some lunch, Professor Coran stops him. “Lance, can I have a little chat with you?”

“Uhm...” Lance looks around, waits for the rest of the students to gather their stuff and leave before walking towards the professor‘s desk. “Sure.”

“I just wanted to ask you how it‘s going with you project,” Professor Coran says, twirling his moustache between his fingers and sending out a couple, familiar orange sparkles. “It‘s a difficult one after all, and I want to make sure that you are not overworking yourself.”

Lance smiles at him. “It‘s alright so far, I guess.” He adjusts the strap of his bag on his shoulder and takes a second to think.

He doesn‘t have any questions for the professor yet, since he‘s at the very beginning of his research, and the question of his project is simple enough to form a thesis that should be sufficient for passing this class.

If he actually finds an answer to the fucking question.

“Did you manage to gather enough material to study the plant?” Professor Coran asks next, a hint of concern in his voice.

“Yeah,” Lance grins proudly, “I actually managed to get five of them home with me.” He grabs his phone and shows the professor a picture of the plants. “It was pretty easy to get them out of the volcano when we figured how they survive there.”

“You figured-” The professor‘s eyes are wide, and his twirling fingers stop for a second. He looks like a statue before he clears his throat and shakes himself out of it. “Very good, very good.” He coughs quietly. “And how did you get into the volcano?”

“Oh, fire mage helped me.” Lance pockets his phone. “He‘s new, so he didn‘t know that he‘s supposed to dislike water mages when I asked him.”

Professor Coran huffs a laugh. “I see.” He gets back to stroking his moustache, smiling at Lance teasingly. “I hope he doesn‘t dislike you now.”

“No, no. We‘re friends,” Lance reassures. “He‘s helping me a lot with the plants.”

Professor Coran clasps his hands together and starts walking towards the door. “That‘s wonderful. Maybe you can break the stupid boundary between water and fire mages while you‘re at it.”

He stops at the door, holds it open for Lance and closes it behind them. “I have one last question,” he says when he turns back around, pointing towards Lance‘s neck where Blue has been sleeping since this morning. “Who is this little fella here?”

“Ah,” Lance chuckles, softly petting her head and feeling a soft wave of their magic swirl together, “that‘s Blue, my familiar. We met in the volcano.”

Professor Coran hums loudly. “First a fire mage, then the plants, now a familiar...” He chuckles quietly and winks at Lance. “... maybe you‘ll find your soulmate next.” 

“I doubt that,” Lance answers quickly. The universe has helped him enough after all, giving him Blue, and Keith, and the plants on top of all. 

“Never doubt the universe, my boy,” Coran says. He starts walking down the hallway, leaving Lance a little baffled and even more confused in front of the room. 

He catches himself after a minute or two, and looks at Blue. “Let‘s get to lunch, shall we?”

Her tongue running against his neck softly is all the answer he gets, but she seems excited. It‘s her first day at school after all, and Lance still has a lot to show her.

After school, that is.


	17. Chapter 17

The week passes as it always does: painfully slow.

Don’t get Lance wrong, he likes his classes, likes learning new things, likes getting out at talking with friends in between lessons or over some coffee after school.

But he’d much rather stay at home and study the plants. 

Blue helps him pass the boring parts of most classes; things he already studied beforehand, or learned in other classes, or picked up from his siblings. Every now and then they need to cover a subject so everyone in the class has the chance to start at the same level. That’s only fair, but that’s also… boring.

Lance lets his finger run over Blue’s smooth scales as he writes a few more things he wants to look at when he gets back to his dorm. The list is already full of random scribbles and ideas, everything and anything that will help him write a proper paper that will let him pass Professor Coran’s class.

A wave of confidence gets send through his heart. The source of this feeling is resting in the pocket of his hoodie.  _ No worries, _ Blue whispers at him.  _ You know more than them… _

Lance knows more?

He looks down at the pocket, barely able to make Blue’s shape out through the thick fabric. He tail wraps around the hand in his pocket and she sends another wave of reassuring feeling through him, almost drowning out his own doubt.

She’s like medicine that keeps him going. Or the calmness in his heart when Keith’s not around.

Lance falters. What did he just think?

“Mr. McClain,” the professor calls from the blackboard, not even turning around as she keeps her hands twirling around so her magic writes some spells on there. “What is the difference between these two spells?”

Lance drops his pen on the desk and scrambles for an answer. The spells look almost the same, with slightly different phrasings, but he’s pretty sure that- “There is none?” he asks carefully, biting his lip and waiting for a crushing laugh from the class.

He looks around when said laugh doesn’t come, and sees that all students are just as confused as he is.

The professor turns around and nods at the class. “Exactly!” 

Huh?

Blue’s amusement rushes through his head, but Lance ignores her to listen to the professor as she starts explaining the similarities and differences between simple phrases. 

He really needs to start paying more attention. 

Lance puts his notes about the plants under the notes about this class- an empty piece of paper- and tries to listen to his professor. She’s still talking about the phrasing, different structures and minimal words that make out spells, something he’s taught himself last year already when the experiment with the ivy went so horribly wrong…

… or right, if he’d were to believe what Keith said. And honestly, who is Lance to not believe Keith?

Glee gets send through his chest, crashing with Blue’s amusement and the general confusion she’s leaving in Lance’s mind. He realizes that she knows something and refuses to tell him, gloating over his troubled heart instead. 

_ Gee, thanks Blue _ , Lance thinks with a pout.  _ That’s very helpful. _

Instead of an answer, Blue forces a picture of Keith into his head and solidifies the image with the feeling of-

What is this?

It feels so right, so comfortable and calm, like a cool breeze overheated skin in the middle of a sunny summer day at the beach. It feels like eating pizza in the middle of the night after a party, relishing the quietness of the stars and the warmth of the partner in crime next to him. It feels like- 

It feels like everything is right. 

It feels like Keith….

The thought disappears when Blue pulls away from him, rolling around in his pocket and falling asleep.

Lance is left with a sudden emptiness and the need to see Keith right now. It’s strong enough to make him forget that he’s in class for a second, or that he has no clue where Keith is actually at right now.

The yearning doesn’t dampen, even as he tries to force his attention back on the twenty minutes of class he has to sit through. 

And until the bell rings to release him, all Lance can ask himself of what Blue just showed him...


	18. Chapter 18

It’s finally Friday, and Lance is giddy.

Has been giddy the whole morning, and will probably be giddy until the rest of the day, because on Friday is his class with Keith. 

His giddiness gets abruptly destroyed by their history teacher announcing a pop quiz that lasts the whole class. Forty-five minutes of lowkey panicking about the answer of the test until Blue helps him out. 

Forty-five minutes of not talking to Keith. 

Forty-five minutes that are almost over too soon, and when Lance finally gives his test sheet to the professor and is allowed to leave the classroom, his mood is dimmed immensely. 

He waits outside until Keith is finished as well. They didn’t get the same test, else he would have helped him cheat a little bit as he did with Blue, but with the room full of people and the professor not willing to move to a bigger room for his test, they got stuck with A and B tests and the obvious rule of no talking during the lesson.

He could use the free time between this class and the next to grab a coffee for himself, maybe something for Keith as well, but he’s not quite sure when Keith is finished with his test, and he doesn’t really want to miss him just for some desperately needed caffeine.

When Keith exits the room with a couple of other students, his shoulders are slumped and his hair messed up from running his hand through it during the test. “That was horrible,” he mutters as soon as he reaches Lance’s side. 

“I know,” Lance answers as they start walking towards the exit of the building. They both got classes right after this, both in different parts of the campus. “I didn’t prepare anything at all.” 

Keith’s head jerks up. “But you-” he points accusingly at Lance, “you were done so quick?” Keith eyes him with confusion until the soft movement in the pocket of Lance’s jacket tells him all he needs to know. “Oh,” he murmurs, “that’s why.” 

Lance chuckles loudly, trying to save the image of Keith pouting at him before it’s gone. “Kosmo didn’t help you?” he asks teasingly. 

Keith frowns and crosses his arms over his chest. “He knows shit about history.” He stays silent for a second, biting his lips until he faces Lance again, the frown replaced by curiosity. “I wonder why Blue knows so much? She must be ancient or something.”

With amusement, Lance feels Blue’s wounded vanity rush through him. She’s practically pouting herself. “You don’t ask women about their age, Keith,” Lance scolds with a grin, ignoring the eye roll he gets from one and the mocking he feels from the other. 

They walk through the big double doors at the end of the hallway and take a deep breath of fresh air once they are outside. Even Blue pokes her head out of the pocket, using Lance’s sleeve to move up to his shoulders instead. It’s weird how the magic of those old buildings always makes them feel a bit stuffy, especially if you stay longer in there. 

“Do you,” Keith starts as they walk on, “do you have any plans later?” 

“Like, in the evening?” Lance asks, watching Keith nod before answering with a shrug. “No, not really.” 

Keith smiles at him, almost hopeful. “Can I come to check out the plants then?” His eyes move to the floor and he wrings his fingers as he talks. “I wanna make sure that the shields are fine and everything.” 

Lance realizes that Keith must be nervous or something, though he’s not quite sure why. He’s been to Lance’s room before after all. Hell, they spend a whole weekend together, sleeping in one bed and all that stuff. 

He doesn’t have to be nervous about asking Lance to see the plants-

Oh, he’s not nervous about that, isn’t he?

Lance tilts his head slightly, but Keith is still staring at the floor in front of them. “Uhm, sure.” He answers, noticing how Keith’s shoulders sink and the fighting stops.

“Great,” he smiles at Lance, “I’ll bring snacks.” 

Snacks? For seeing the plans? It sounds like he’s going to stay a bit longer. Lance feels like he should clean his room, just in case. 

“Okay.” He nods towards the clock over the entrance of the nearest building. They already reached the part of the campus where they have to go separate ways- at least until the evening… “I gotta go. See you later, I guess?”

“Oh, uhm-” Keith quickly checks his watch. “How about six?” 

“That works for me.” Lance turns towards his building and raises his hand to wave quickly. “See you.” 

“Yeah,” Keith waves back, “later.” 

If Lance would turn around one more time, he would see Keith raising his fist into the air with a wide grin. 

He doesn’t turn around. 

Blue though, she does. And she lets Lance see what she’s seeing with the same amusement she’s been teasing him with for the past week. 


	19. Chapter 19

Six o‘clock rolls around and Lance is panting like crazy. He got stuck in a chat with a professor for almost an hour, which made him wish that he had a teleporting wolf as a familiar while he sprinted across campus to get to his dorm before Keith. 

With five minutes to spare he shoved all of his clothes, clean and dirty ones, into his closet and all of his books, no matter which subject, into the free space under his bed, draping his sheets over them so they stay hidden. 

His room is still a mess, but at least it’s the mess Keith has already seen. 

The plants are thriving on his window sill, the shield intakt, the flowers glowing like always, and the forty five thousand unanswered questions circling through Lance‘s mind like a hamster in one of those balls you put them in and let them roam freely.

Yeah…

A knock on the door jerks him away from the plants and his unfinished room. Lance hurries to open the door and smiles at Keith as he stands there with his windswept hair and a huge pizza box in his hands. 

Lance knows that his smile turns into a huge grin, but he can‘t help himself. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Keith answers, smile just as bright. “How uhm-” He scratches his neck and bites his lips for a second. “How are the plants?”

“Oh, here. Let me show you!” Lance takes Keith‘s free hand and drags him inside, stopping right in front of his window where the plants are glowing away. “They are doing great. I think they would survive without the shields as well, especially since we got so much water magic in our dorm that they should feel safe enough.”

Keith hums understanding. “But you want to study them in their original environment,” he notices, waiting for Lance‘s nod before reaching out to touch the shields. Violet sparkles fly around, touching the other plants as well, and after a few minutes Keith looks up with a smile.“They seem fine. I strengthened them, just in case. Though my magic can‘t compare to the one at the volcano.”

Lance chuckles. He feels the same with the ocean. “I think your magic is plenty enough.” He claps his hands together and looks expectantly at his bed. “Pizza?”

“Oh, yeah.” Keith nods towards the box he placed on the bed. “I asked you friend to make your favorite. I hope it‘s alright.”

Lance feels his face light up. “You got Hunk to make pizza? Dude, of course that‘s alright.” He‘s giddy as he opens the pizza box and sees his favorite toppings on one half, and the order Keith had last time on the other. “It‘s literally the best.”

Keith sighs quietly. “I‘m glad.” He takes a tentative seat on the bed, since Lance‘s chair is full with clothes he has forgotten to hide, and Lance follows suit. They eat the first slice in comfortable silence, though Lance feels like talking instead. 

So he does. “Where‘s Kosmo?” He asks with a full mouth, swallowing before adding, “Did you send him on a secret mission again?”

“No,” Keith huffs. “I saw him with Blue like half an hour ago.”

“Blue? But she‘s-” Lance pats the pocket of his hoodie, where his familiar should be. The pocket is empty though, and Lance wonders when the hell Blue managed to get away without him even noticing. “I guess Kosmo kidnapped her again,” he murmurs, getting back to his pizza. 

If Blue needs him, she can just reach out. 

“I‘m thinking of putting a tracking spell on him,” Keith explains while getting his second slice. “The kidnapping is getting out of hand.” He waves with his hand, lets a few violet sparkles fly around and turn into a small map that shows their campus. “I‘m sure he‘s around here,” he circles an area where a pond and some pretty neat rock formations, perfect for hiding, are located, “but I can‘t tell exactly unless he tells me.”

“Which he doesn‘t?” Lance asks curiously.

Keith pouts at his pizza. “No.” 

Lance chuckles, but when the pout gets directed at him, he decides to send a wave of magic to Blue, asking where they are. He gets a response right away, the picture of a tiny waterfall hidden between two rocks popping up in his head. He knows where this is. 

Lance scoots closer to the map and studies it for a second before pointing out the spot. “Here,” he says with a smile. “Blue told me they are here.”

“At least your familiar talks to you,” Keith murmurs, making Lance chuckle again. 

He turns his head to look at Keith instead and-

His breath hitches when he notices how close they are. Keith is basically looking over Lance‘s shoulder, their sides are almost touching, not even a breath apart. Keith turns to Lance as well and his eyes widen, his cheeks redden, his breath stocks just like Lance‘s. 

Lance can everything of Keith. The lilac dots in his eyes mixing with the indigo, the tip of his scar all the way down to his jawline, a hint of a teeth showing from biting his lips and-

His lips-

Lance heart skips a beat. 

Keith‘s lips… how he yearns to touch them. The feel them on him. To taste them- just for a moment, just to know how it‘s like. He doesn‘t even question the thoughts running through his head, too occupied by the proximity, the possibility, the inch between them he‘s yearning to cross.

Kosmo pops up besides them and they jump apart. While the dog tilts his head to look at them, putting his snout on the bed so Blue can shuffle off his head, Lance rubs his neck and watches how Keith avoid to look him in the eyes, a bright red on his cheeks making Lance doubt that color came from magic all along. 

“I- I think I should...” Keith motions towards Kosmo, who‘s wagging his tail in anticipation. 

“Yeah, uhm-” Lance really doesn‘t know what to say. “Okay, yeah-”

Keith gets up from the bed and tangles his fingers into Kosmo‘s fur, briefly looking at Lance before raising his hand. “See you-”

The next moment he‘s gone, and Lance is left with a heated face and a off-beat thumping heart. “Bye...”

He falls back into his sheets, the half-eaten pizza next to him forgotten, just like Blue who‘s making herself comfortable on one of Lance‘s pillows. 

What did just happen?

Did he just- and did Keith just- 

And why?

Lance breath hitches as his mind finally forms the answers he didn’t know he’s been searching for days.

_ Oh. _

Lance  _ likes _ Keith…

And- 

And he thinks Keith likes him  _ back _ !

What the hell is he supposed to do now?


	20. Chapter 20

Keith is not in his room. Neither in his dorm kitchen, common room, library or any other place Lance can think of. 

Any other place Lance can access, because even though the fire mages don‘t seem to mind that he‘s here, they won‘t just let him stroll around like one of their own. One of them, a nice guy named Avec who‘s always wearing a skeleton hoodie, even helps him break into the small tower of the fire dorms, thinking that Kosmo might have teleported them there. 

He didn‘t.

Lance leaves the dorm thanking Avec for his help and walking to the library in the main building next. Then to the cafeteria which is just about to close. To the pizza place, the building of the class they share, hell even into all men‘s restrooms but-

Nothing. 

Distraught he slumps onto a bench near his history building. Lance worries his lip and runs his hands through his hair, starting to believe that Keith actually did not want to kiss him and that Lance is just imagining things.

What if he‘s overthinking it? What if Keith really doesn‘t want to see him right now? What if-

A nudge in his pocket halts his tumbling thoughts for a moment. Blue‘s head pokes out from his hoodie and she slides into the palm Lance is holding out for her. She looks at him with her big eyes, her tongue flipping out a couple of times before she finally speaks up.

She sends Lance‘s thoughts into another tumble, because, “What do you mean ‚you know where he is‘?” Lance asks after listening to her silent voice in his head. He huffs annoyed. “And you couldn‘t have told me earlier?”

You know, like before he ran over half of the campus to find him. 

Her concern runs through his heart, though it‘s not concern for him. It‘s for Keith, and for the things he must be feeling right now. She believes that he needs some time to think, just like Lance had enough time to do the same while running around to find him. 

Only that he started to doubt himself in the end. That‘s why she decided to step in the first place. 

“Ugh-” Lance groans loudly, slumping against the back of the bench and pouting at the sky. “You are like my mom sometimes,” he murmurs, though there is no malice behind those words. 

His mom is freaking amazing after all. 

“Will you tell me where he is?” Lance asks softly, the pout still there but the worry at least a little bit subdued. He‘s pretty sure that Blue is mendling with his feelings again, but at least he can see, or feel, clearer like this.

She sends him the picture of the pond Kosmo and her killed sometime before- before  _ this _ happened, and gives Lance an encouraging nudge against his hand to go for it.

It takes him ten minutes to get there, ten minutes of thinking what to say, what to do, how to feel. Ten minutes are not enough to create a plan, or even a guideline in his mind, and when he finally spots Keith underneath a tree, he decides to take a deep breath and just go for it.

“Keith?” Lance calls out when he steps next to the tree.

Keith‘s head shoots up, looking at him as if he‘d just seen a ghost. “Lance? What are you doing here?” He gets up from his seat, ignoring Kosmo who simply teleports away. “How did you find me?”

Lance holds up his palm where his familiar is still perched on. “Blue helped me after a while.” Keith nods understandingly. He doesn‘t seem angry, so Lance explains with a smile, “Let me run through your entire dorm first though, so I am a little bit pissed at her.” 

The moment he‘s finished, Kosmo pops up beside him, presses his snout into his palm and teleports away- with Blue, not with him. Lance is left alone with Keith, sitting at a bond in the middle of the evening and the setting sun behind them. 

It‘s no surprise that the two of them would make a run for it, but it leaves Lance a little lost. What should he say? Should he even say something? Should he talk about the- you know- or should he just shut up? But he‘s not good at shutting up, so he takes a deep breath and-

“About th-”

“I‘m sor-”

They look at each other in surprise, a little smile appearing on Keith‘s lips that makes the corners of Lance‘s mouth twitch as well. “Why are you sorry?” Lance huffs quietly.

Keith‘s hand moves over his arm, scratching the same spot a couple of times before dropping it helplessly. “I- I didn‘t-” He sighs. “I didn‘t want to make you uncomfortable or something.”

Lance‘s eyes widen. “You didn‘t!” He can‘t help but raise his voice, a defensive wave crashing through his heart. He doesn‘t want Keith to feel this way, needs him to know that he would never-

“But we almost-” He stops himself, eyes growing wide before they fall on the floor. His cheeks turn red, and Lance can feel the heat in his own face rising as well. Gosh, why are they like this?

He clears his throat. “Yeah. We almost- uhm...” Clear his throat again, because it feels like a frog is sitting in there, keeping his mouth from working, just like his brain, or his face, or his heart. “You don‘t have to feel sorry for it, because I also-” 

Keith draws his eyes back on him, tentative, almost hopeful and yet so shy as if he couldn‘t believe what Lance just almost spilled. Just like Lance can‘t. 

“You also what?” he asks carefully. 

“I- uhm- I also...” Lance feels like crawling into a ball and hiding on the bottom of the pond. His voice grows timid, almost silent, and it takes all his willpower to push out the next words. “...wanted to kiss you.”

“Oh...” Keith takes a deep breath, his shoulders falling as the tension seems to leave his body. “Okay.” Keith worries his lip, a intriguing sight if you kind of just confessed your feelings for the other. “Okay, then...”

And Lance wants to answer, but Keith shuts him up by grabbing his collar, stepping closer and leaning in. 


	21. Chapter 21

If you believe it or not, Lance has kissed someone before. A couple of people, actually. 

But it has never been like  _ this _ .

Keith‘s lips are a bit chapped, a bit wet, a bit hot. A bit like the fire magic that cursing through his veins, a bit like the air magic that‘s surrounding him thanks to his familiar, a bit like the water magic that must spread to his body thanks to their close proximity. 

The kiss is a whiplash against all of Lance‘s senses. He feels a foreign heat erupting deep in his stomach, bubbling through his heart and creating a current in his mind that‘s a mixture of dark violet and light blue. Sometimes they mix into a shining indigo, sometimes they stay as they are. 

Lance feels like he found his other half, feels like an empty spot has been filled, feels like—

Feels like— 

Just feels.

As Keith pulls away, Lance can‘t open his eyes for a moment. His heart is racing, his magic is flaring up around him, and the remnants of their kiss is taking his breath away. “Wow.”

Keith leans their foreheads together as Lance dares to look at him, smiling at him with a mix of surprise and relief in his eyes. “That was...”

“Amazing,” Lance whispers, his smile growing with Keith‘s. He places his hands on Keith‘s shoulders, steps closer when Keith pulls him against his chest and wraps his arms around Lance‘s waist instead.

“Amazing,” he repeats, his voice just as hoarse and breathless as Lance‘s. “What was this?”

“I don‘t know.” He can clearly make out the waves of his magic flowing through Keith, just like he‘s sure that Keith can feel the same with his magic in Lance‘s body. Just like the water of the flowers working with the fire of the volcano, their magic gathers, intertwines and creates a new ocean just for the two of them.

“It feels like a bonfire,” Keith tells him, his hand moving over his heart before doing the same with Lance. “As if you put gasoline into my chest and used my magic to ignite it.”

“Really?” Lance chuckles. “For me it‘s as if—” He takes a moment to think, to look inside him and see what is going on. “As if you planted a hot volcano into a cold ocean and drowned me in it.”

“Drowned you?” Keith huffs, though his eyes show his amusement.

“The good way of drowning,” he answers quickly, gaining an unimpressed look. Lance rolls his eyes. There are more important things to discuss. “Why does our magic feel like this?”

Keith‘s eyes widen for a second and he drops his gaze. “I don‘t know?” His voice raises an octave, giving away that he‘s lying. “I don‘t know,” he repeats, voice a bit lower, but still. 

“Keith?” Lance murmurs, placing his hands on Keith’s cheeks and forcing him to look at Lance.

“No, Lance, I—” Keith stops himself as a long sigh leaves his lips. He can‘t fool Lance after all. “Soulmates,” he whispers finally.

“Soulmates?” Lance raises an eyebrow even though Keith is still refusing to look at him. “You and me?” His other eyebrow joins the first when it clicks in his brain. Of course. Of course they are, just like the  _ salvia aquatilium  _ and the volcano are. “You and me… yeah, makes sense.”

Keith looks surprised. “What?”

It just fits. 

“That makes sense,” Lance repeats. “We get along almost too well, Kosmo can use my magic, and now  _ that _ happened.” He waves his hands between them, indicating that that means literally everything, not just their magic connecting like the pieces of a puzzle.

Keith catches one of Lance‘s hands and kisses the tip of every finger with a smile. His eyes sparkle in a mix of violet and blue, and Lance is sure if he were to use his own magic, it would look the same. 

“Also,” Lance puts up a teasing smile, “my herbology professor told me I‘d find my soulmate next, and he‘s crazy enough to actually know stuff like this.”

Keith nuzzles his nose against Lance‘s cheek, leaving a soft trail of kisses there. “Did he now?” 

Lance can feel Keith‘s sudden confidence like a fire in his own heart, which fuels his own actions. He runs his hand through Keith‘s hair and pulls him back to catch his lips. 

It should be weird to feel Keith‘s emotions rush through him, but he‘s already used to it from Blue. It‘s different from his familiar, but just as close, just as secure, just as reassuring.

He hopes— no, he knows that Keith feels the same about it.

They are soulmates. 

Lance can‘t help but smile, grin even, not caring if it disturbs their kiss. Keith is doing the same while giddiness sprouts in their throats and runs down into their hearts. It‘s impossible not to smile, but it‘s also impossible to not kiss each other when their hearts are just overflowing. 

In the spur of the moment Lance pulls away and drags Keith back to the tree he was just sitting under. It‘s the perfect location for a date after all, even if they don‘t have any food or drinks or even a blanket to sit on. 

He doesn‘t care, as long as Keith is there. 

When the sun finally sets and the moon starts to rise, the temperatures sink, but Keith keeps them warm with his magic. Lance starts playing with the water of the pond as they talk about everything and nothing, but drops it every time one of them leans in for another round of kisses. 

This is definitely not how he expected the evening with Keith to do, but who is Lance to complain?


	22. Chapter 22

With the moon high up in the air and the temperatures dropping, Lance and Keith decide to head back inside. Sure, Keith‘s magic can keep them at a comfortable warmth for the rest of the night, but there is only so much you can do for sitting on the hard ground with nothing but a jacket as cushion. 

They walk towards Lance‘s dorm, since Kosmo and Blue are nowhere to be found, and because it‘s just nice to spend time together like this. Hand in hand— because they feel the need to touch, to be close to each other— they stroll over the campus, chatting away until they fall into Lance‘s bed. 

Lance is lying next to Keith, his foot touching the forgotten pizza box and his hand holding his soulmate. 

His soulmate—

He can‘t help but sigh while a wide grin stretches across his lips. He looks to his side, sees that Keith is already staring at him with the same grin, prompting him to shuffle closer and catch his lips for the hundredth time this evening.

He just can‘t get enough. 

Keith makes it hard to talk, hard to even think when his mouth keeps Lance‘s busy, tracing over his lips and the skin around it. The touch feels new and familiar, the closeness exciting and calming, making Lance wonder...

“This soulmate thing—” 

Keith puts a hand under his head which makes it easier to look at Lance. “What about it?” 

Lance bites his lip, wondering if he really wants to know the answer. But who is he kidding? Of course he wants to. “Did you know that we are soulmates?”

Keith takes a second to think, his eyes wandering over the room, the ceiling and the plants before getting back to Lance. “I was thinking about it,” he admits finally, a blush spreading on his cheeks. “Hoping for it, but I never thought that we‘d  _ actually _ be—”

Lance can feel happiness bubbling in his stomach like sparkling wine. “You hoped for it?” he teases, waiting for Keith to show him his little frown before leaning forward and whispering against his lips, “How cute.” He makes himself a bit more comfortable, leaning his head on his arm and watching how Keith turns around and does the same. “So, since when?”

“You have no clue...” Keith murmurs before he pulls Lance on his chest. He wraps a hand around Lance‘s neck to deepen the next kiss. His lips are so warm, so careful, so gentle with him, as if he couldn‘t believe it yet.

The longer they kiss, the more their magic starts to flare up again. A whirlwind of reds and blues fly through Lance‘s tiny room. He can hear the pages of some books flutter around, the leaves of the plants rustle and even his curtains swi—

The plants!

Lance gasps and pushes off Keith‘s chest, making Keith land in his pillow with a huff. He jumps from the bed and walks towards his windowshil, checking if each of the plants are fine. 

Keith gets up from the bed as well, striding up to Lance and hugging him from behind. “The shields are strong enough.” There is amusement in his voice as he presses Lance to his chest while the other tries to slap him away. 

“Nope,” Lance murmurs, taking Keith‘s hands and pressing them against the shields. “I‘m not risking it.” He squeezes them a couple of times until he can feel Keith‘s magic wander through his fingers, strengthening the shields so they hold against—

Against whatever they might do a bit later. 

“We can just get some new ones,” Keith says after he is done, nuzzling into Lance‘s neck and tickling him with his long hair. “You know, another trip, just the two of us.”

Lance hums into the touch and leans his head back to rest on Keith‘s shoulder. “You are awfully into all this,” he murmurs while nibbling at Keith‘s jawline. There is a hint of some stubble scratching him, and the skin around Keith‘s scar feels dry and rough when he kisses it. It gives Lance even more reason to pepper it with love.

Keith leans against him, putting his whole body weight against Lance until they almost fall over. Lance can‘t help but laugh at Keith‘s antics while trying to get them back on the bed. If they fall on there, at least they will fall on something soft. 

Keith lets him go for a couple of seconds, long enough to take a seat on top of the sheets, but not long enough to let Lance make himself more comfortable. He simply grabs Lance‘s waist and pulls him back on his chest, just like they were before. 

“This all just feels right,” he admits while gazing into Lance‘s eyes with a smile. “I know that I can trust you.”

The confession makes Lance blush, probably even more than all the kisses before. Sure, he knows that Keith feels that way— feels it even, but actually hearing it is something else. Something nice and warm and bubbly in his chest. 

“I trust you too,” he answers quickly, leaving a peck on Keith‘s lips before adding, “And the trip was  _ really _ fun.” Because it was, especially the hot bath. Or the food. Or the night spent together. Or just everything. 

“We‘re gonna repeat that,” Keith says before glancing at the plants to his side. “ _ After _ you are done with your project.”

Lance can‘t swallow a loud groan, hiding his face in Keith‘s neck. “Don‘t remind me of the project.” Even though he doesn‘t feel as helpless anymore— he even feels as if he‘s on the verge of a breakthrough— all the work that‘s still ahead of him makes his motivation plummet into a deep hole. 

Keith nudges Lance‘s forehead with his nose. “You got this.”

It makes Lance scoff. “A soulmate is what I got. The answer to my thesis though… ” He looks up with a pout and watches how Keith lips form into a smile as he leans for another kiss. “Though I think that you—” And another kiss, “— might actually help me more than any book.”

Keith chuckles against his lips. “I‘m glad I can be of help.”

“Oh, I‘m sure you are. You like me after all.” 

“Shut up,” Keith mutters.

“Make me,” Lance prompts.

How could Keith not kiss him after that? His hand wanders back around Lance‘s neck, his arm around Lance‘s waist, and his magic through Lance‘s body, spreading warmth from his chest through every limb and finally into his soul. 

And Lance just can‘t get enough. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only the Epilogue is missing now. We are in the middle of voting for that!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> Comments mean the world to me, so please tell me what you think about this fic.
> 
> Follow my [ Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/wertdifferenz.art/) for the latest stories and prompts!


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